Museums in Germany, New York, and Vermont are among those to honor the late abstract landscape painter next year.
Several museums are joining forces to celebrate Wolf Kahn, who rendered his pastoral surroundings in saturated hues and diffused light, on the occasion of the late artist’s 100th birthday next October. Unfolding across 2027, Kahn’s centennial program is assembled by the artist’s namesake foundation, which recently opened a permanent location for its archives in New York City this summer.
Known for melding the representational with the abstract, Kahn’s reputed, lesser-known, and never-before-seen work will be exhibited in locations that shaped his life and career trajectory. Born in 1927 in Germany to a Jewish family, Kahn moved to the United States in 1940 as a refugee during World War II. He got his bearings in New York City, which became an influential home base for the artist throughout his lifetime.
He also spent a significant amount of time developing his practice in Martha’s Vineyard and Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he worked as a studio assistant for Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann. He eventually purchased a farm in West Brattleboro, Vermont, where he would spend his summers painting en plein air from 1968 until he died in 2020. Over seven decades, Kahn carved out a reputation for rendering nature through luminous, exaggerated, and arbitrary color, creating a glowing effect across his landscapes.