Wolf Kahn : The City as Landscape

WOLF KAHNTHE CITY AS LANDSCAPE

McENERY

AMERINGER

YO H E

525 West 22nd Street New York, NY 10011tel 212 445 0051 www.amy-nyc.com

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As a painter, I have gotten into the habit of using daily walks as a springboard for finding subject matter. For a landscape painter, this happens most often in the warmer seasons. However, my walking occurs most regularly between my home and studio, a mile or so every morning and then back again in the evenings, when the air is crisp and I am wearing a scarf. One finds inspiration with every step and on every corner. The melding of buildings, streets and vegetation provides a constant source of imagery. The changes in the quality of light astonish the eye, and the dazzling shift of scale between avenues and streets is an ever-stimulating variation of intimacy and grandeur.

To a searching eye, an apartment building rising behind a screen of trees in Gramercy Park appears as a contrasting texture amid the foliage, while the Empire State Building, as seen through the window overlooking the pastel table in my studio, rises grandly above its surroundings as a monumental apparition around which the city slowly recedes into a blue haze. As one’s normal vision tends toward the conventional, an artist’s obligation is to press beyond the ordinary.

I owe a great debt to the Impressionists, but an equal one to early American modernists. The breadth of these influences may be due to my European origins. However, inspiration comes even more from the changes in the seasons, the hours in the day, and one’s available enthusiasm. Such stimulation offers a catalog of visual pleasures, a catalog that is so richly provided by New York, the city of cities.

Wolf KahnNew York City

March, 2012

THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE

Tower (detail), 2012, Oil on canvas, 23 x 16 inches

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On the Far West Side, 1954Pastel on paper10 x 13 inches

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Stuyvesant Park, 1967Pastel on paper12 x 18 inches

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Early Pastel of St. George’s Church, NY, 1969Pastel on paper14 x 17 inches

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Over the Tops of Trees at Stuyvesant Park, 2003Pastel on paper12 x 12 inches

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Across Stuyvesant Park, NYC, 2003Pastel on paper14 x 11 inches

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Stuyvesant Park Bared of Trees, 2003Pastel on paper12 x 18 inches

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Across the Nearby Park, 2003Pastel on paper14 x 18 inches

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Street Trees, 2004Pastel on paper12 x 9 inches

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Evening Over Gramercy Park, 2007Pastel on paper14 x 11 inches

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Across the Middle of Stuyvesant Park, 2008Pastel on paper11 x 14 inches

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From Riverside Drive Park, 2008Pastel on paper11 x 14 inches

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In Stuyvesant Park, 2008Pastel on paper12 x 9 inches

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Tower, 2009Pastel on paper14 x 11 inches

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Looking Down the Street in New York, 2010Pastel on paper21 x 17 inches

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Across the Park, 2009Oil on canvas26 x 32 inches

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Stuyvesant Square (Almost Square), 2004Oil on canvas16 x 18 inches

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Overlooking the Park, 2003Oil on canvas24 x 20 inches

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Stuyvesant Park (NYC) in Winter, 2003Oil on canvas42 x 32 inches

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Small Gramercy Park Painting, 2008Oil on canvas18 x 20 inches

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Gramercy Park in October, 2007Oil on canvas22 x 30 inches

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Gramercy Park, 2008Oil on canvas43 x 72 inches

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Silvery Tower, 2012Oil on canvas30 x 16 inches

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Tower, 2012Oil on canvas23 x 16 inches

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Empire State, 2008Oil on canvas52 x 36 inches

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe

525 West 22nd Street

New York, NY 10011

tel: 212 445 0051

www.amy-nyc.com

www.wolfkahn.com

Publication © 2011 Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe

All rights reserved

Catalogue designed by Hannah Alderfer, HHA Design

Printed and bound in Canada

Photography: Carlin Mayer

ISBN: 978-0-9850184-1-2

McENERY

AMERINGER

YO H E

WOLF KAHN THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE 12 July – 17 August 2012