Blue Runs Through It embodies the artist’s intentional, yet playful use of color in his work: “I am always trying to get to a danger point in color, where color either becomes too sweet or it becomes too harsh, it becomes too noisy or too quiet, and at that point I still want the picture to be strong, forceful, and the carrier of everything that a painting has to have: contrast, drama, austerity.” His fusion of memory, imagination, and invention converge in this painting as we glimpse flashes of a vibrant blue river through a dense grouping of towering trees. Offset against the luminous warmth of the distant hillside, the colors engulf the senses, while the gray sky beyond the treetops provides a sense of balance and peace to the scene.

More information about this painting...

During his nearly seventy-year career, Wolf Kahn met with great success for his unparalleled synthesis of Color Field and Realism painting. He was awarded a Medal of Arts from the US State Department, and he exhibited widely at prestigious venues across the country, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Diego Museum of Art. Today, his vigorous paintings of New England’s landscape can be found in countless private and public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Provenance:

Private collection, New Castle, New Hampshire

With Barridoff Auctions, South Portland, Maine, August 2021

To private collection, Vermont, August 2021 to present

Inscription:

1. (upper left frame verso) -–Through It / 26 x 30
2. (upper left frame verso) TUVESON STUDIOS 2012

Labels:

Thomas Segal Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland / Wolf Kahn / Blue Runs Through It, 2004 / Oil on canvas / 26 x 30 inches / 22175