WOLF KAHN Toward the Larger View: A Painter’s Process
23 April – 5 June 2009
20 West 57th Street New York, New York 10019 tel: 212 445 0051 fax: 212 445 0102 www.ameringer-yohe.com
Toward the L ar g e r V i ew: A Pa i nte r’ s P roc e s s
What you see is a process, which starts from small pastel sketches and drives toward eventual large-scale oil paintings. This activity may clarify, or complicate, the result. A change of scale opens up new possibilities, often allowing greater freedom of execution. Sometimes color and tone are pushed to their extreme. I feel a pressure to extend limitations (although old habits may sometimes interfere).
Each set of images is accompanied by a narrative — what was on my mind, what surprised me in the process, what held me back. I attempted to be as open as each situation allowed so that the viewer could be a companion and accomplice in each of these adventures. Wolf Kahn
E ARLY SUMM ER PA I N TI N G
In the pastel that initiates this series, I recognized a balance between the whites in the lower left and the orange band on the middle right. Over time, this orange started to look too pretty and predictable. I determined to push for greater severity. The image became more and more suffused
White became the principal subject of the final painting. with white and quite ambiguous spatially.
Study for “Early Summer Painting�, 2008, pastel on paper, 14 x 17 inches
Early Summer Painting, 2008, oil on canvas, 22 x 24 inches
Springtime Tangle, 2008, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
Early Summer Painting, 2008, oil on canvas, 52 x 66 inches
L IGHT BLU E HORIZO N
Just to show how useful it is to paint from simple observations, we have here a view of the Connecticut River in the evening, when the sun leaves one shore in deep shadow while bathing the other in brilliant evening light. In value, one shore connects with the sky, the opposite one with the water.
The challenge here is to let neither predominate, so that the inevitable contrast between sky and land is shared between two entities.
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Small Study for “Blue at the Horizon” I, 2008, pastel on paper, 7 x 81/2 inches Small Study for “Blue at the Horizon” II, 2008, pastel on paper, 7 x 8 1/2 inches Small Study for “Blue at the Horizon” III, 2008, pastel on paper, 7 x 8 1/2 inches Small Study for “Blue at the Horizon” IV, 2008, pastel on paper, 7 x 81/2 inches
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Study for “Light Blue Horizon�, 2008, pastel on paper, 17 x 24 inches
Study for “Light Blue Horizon”, 2008, oil on canvas, 22 x 30 inches
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Light Blue Horizon, 2008, oil on canvas, 52 x 66 inches
ORA NGE FOREGRO U ND
This image of an orchard is reminiscent of sketches I made a few years ago of macadamia nut orchards in Hawaii and relies on memory rather than direct observation of nature.
The transition from the small pastel to the painting involves increasing simplification and coloristic intensification. In the final oil, the orange of the foreground is less subtle than that in the pastels. But it was forced upon me since a more transparent orange could not support the weight of the green and black above it. About ten layers of bright orange, yellow and red were required to achieve the proper density, and it took three weeks.
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First Study for “Orange Foreground�, 2008, pastel on paper, 8 x 10 inches
First Sketch for “Orange Foreground�, 2008, pastel on paper, 9 x 12 inches
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Study for “Orange Foreground�, 2008, pastel on paper, 22 x 30 inches
Orange Foreground, 2008, oil on canvas, 32 x 40 inches
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DUNKL EE BARN
These attached barns in Dummerston, Vermont, belong to the Dunklees, who are free of the deplorable but widespread obligation whereby everything around structures has to be spruced up and “landscaped.” Instead, the Dunklee place has a picturesque informality—not to say untidiness—
I discovered there that the sky is blue, really blue, and that grass, rather than green, is likely to be grayish or ochre, if observed carefully. Careful which provides a variety of textures and colors.
observation leads the artist to invent colors to correspond with each area of the painting rather than following preconceived notions, or reading what the paint tube has printed on its label.
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Large Barn on the Dunklee Farm, 2007, pastel on paper, 14 x 17 inches On the Dunklee Farm, 2007, pastel on paper, 14 x 17 inches Lester Dunklee’s Barn, 2007, pastel on paper, 12 x 18 inches Dunklee’s Barn in Perspective, 2007, pastel on paper, 14 x 17 inches
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Dunklee Barn, 2007, oil on canvas, 42 x 52 inches
TO NES O F S P RING
I have long sketched ordinary woodland scenes
contrast very opaque with very transparent penetrations of deep space. in ways that allowed me to
I have also used variations of color and texture to define these places more accurately. A year or so ago, I visited friends in Clinton, New Jersey, who have a property which still sports some quite unkempt and weedy sections of woods. I decided to document with a pastel the near-chaotic disposition of elements. As I worked toward the final painting, I became more and more aware of the special light emanating from a kind of a clearing in the middle of the woods. This reminded me of the illuminated center of 17th century landscapes (especially Claude Lorrain) and through a number of works this center translated into strong yellows and whites and became the focus of the painting. 24
Chaotic, 2007, pastel on paper, 11 x 14 inches
Neglected, 2007, pastel on paper, 14 x 17 inches
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Tones of Spring, 2008, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 inches
Dri veway with Loc usts
How to integrate the forward trees on the left with the row of trees along the driveway? This was the most difficult problem to solve in this series. In the pastel, the foreground trees are too isolated. In the final painting, I was able to integrate the trees by darkening not only them, but the whole left side of the picture.
The presence of fog allowed me to concentrate on small contrasts to describe how the driveway moved away from my location. Whenever possible, I am happier to derive the structure of a painting from observation of nature rather than to depend upon a preconceived notion of natural happenings.
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Driveway Fog, 2007, pastel on paper, 12 x 18 inches
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Foggy Driveway, 2008, pastel on paper, 22 x 30 inches
Summer Fog, 2008, oil on canvas, 18 x 20 inches
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Driveway with Locusts, 2008, oil on canvas, 40 x 52 inches
BARN IN THE CORN ER
This series is a total invention. To work calligraphically in a predominantly dark context allows for a great deal of contrast and generates new color combinations. I introduce green with trepidation as I do not want that color to be more than a gentle hint. Otherwise, the viewer would inevitably think of 19th century Impressionism to which my work has often been incorrectly related. I do start from nature and use “broken� brush strokes, but in everything else I depart from impressionistic practice. I feel more related to Abstract Expressionism, which was part of my artistic upbringing, and
I like the idea that one should drive toward spontaneity as a painter, rather than follow preset agendas.
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Study for “Filled with Foliage�, 2008, pastel on paper, 12 x 18 inches
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Sky of Pale Orange, 2008, oil on canvas, 22 x 30 inches
Filled with Foliage, 2009, oil on canvas, 30 x 52 inches
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Barn in the Corner, 2009, oil on canvas, 65 x 84 inches
B E FORE S U NRISE
Rothko has given us permission to simplify our
A line of dark woods bordering my pasture in Vermont gave me the impulse to paint a Rothko-like landscape. The pink paintings by using coloristic bands.
above and the green below the black act as a transition to the adjoining areas. Don’t think that finding the right size and colors of these connections was any kind of a cinch‌
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Perfect Sunrise, 2007, pastel on paper, 9 x 12 inches
Large Study for “Before Sunrise�, 2008, pastel on paper, 14 x 19 inches
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Before Sunrise, 2008, oil on canvas, 52 x 66 inches
MAGE NTA VARI ATI O NS
I had a pastel that I felt was clear enough in its structure to be translated almost exactly into a large painting. The color relations move almost logically across the surface. The order of the trees does not follow a hierarchical sequence but a purely tonal one where no one object is more important than any other. Because I have previously painted a number of tree rows, I am now quite comfortable with this subject. Therefore, the transition from the pastel to the painting came about with enjoyable ease.
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Mostly Austere Pink, 2008-09, pastel on paper, 15 x 22 inches
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Magenta Variations, 2009, oil on canvas, 52 x 83 inches
Published on the occasion of the exhibition
WOLF KAHN Toward the Larger View: A Painter’s Process 23 April – 5 June 2009 Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art 20 West 57th Street New York, New York 10019 tel: 212 445 0051 fax: 212 445 0102 www.ameringer-yohe.com www.wolfkahn.com Statements by Wolf Kahn copyright © 2009 Credits: Photography by Jordan Tinker Catalogue designed by Hannah Alderfer, HHA Design Printed by CA Design, Hong Kong Publication copyright © 2009 Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art All rights reserved ISBN: 978-0-9820810-2-0 Cover: Barn in the Corner (detail), page 39 Inside cover: Early Summer Painting (detail), page 9
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