South Pon Shore Line, 1952

Vendor: Wolf Khan
Regular price: $15,000.00
Sale price: $15,000.00
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Wolf Kahn (1927-2020)
South Pon Shore Line, 1952
Pastel on paper
11 x 14 inches
Framed Dimensions: 16.50h x 18.50w x 1d inches

He would have been just twenty-four when this pastel was finished and (from a career standpoint) just embarking on his post Hans Hoffman Studio assistant experience as a fully independent full-time artist.

This harmonic pastel piece is beautifully executed, and is completely Georgian in its symmetrically reflected sky and pond, top and bottom.

The brilliance of his composition, the texture of the applied pastel, and the superbly created pond shoreline make this the earliest Wolf Kahn pastel “masterwork” I have ever seen and a surefire investment winner for any collector.

-J. Steven Manolis (Manolis Projects Gallery Owner and Artist in Residence).

Wolf Kahn is known for his fusion of color, spontaneity and loose brush strokes, which create the luminous and vibrant atmospheric landscapes and color fields. Kahn’s unique blend of American Realism and the formal discipline of Color Field painting sets his work apart from his contemporaries.

According to his painting student J. Steven Manolis, when Kahn traveled, he always painted with pastels because they were easy to transport. He also started his painting day with a 2-3 hour session of pastels. Kahn would say, "Pastels are my calisthenics before painting with oils on canvas." He would joke, "I breathe, I pastel." He considered pastel to be the "equivalent of dust from butterflies wings." His pastel technique would include placing the pastel on paper and then rubbing and smearing the pastel on the paper with his fingertips.

Almost all Wolf Kahn oil paintings were scaled up versions of an earlier pastel. Most art historians and art critics consider Wolf Kahn to be one of the most significant pastel artists ever, and certainly since Degas.