The Morris Museum of Art currently has an exhibition of pastels to honor the eminent painter Wolf Kahn, who passed this spring. Wolf Kahn studied with German-born American painter Hans Hoffman, who deeply influenced his ideas about color.
When teaching a workshop Kahn was once asked by a student why he was painting the trees purple. He replied that "It is not a tree. It is a painting of a tree. Therefore, I can make it any color I want."
Wolf Kahn, In Redcliffe State Park (SC), 1999. Pastel on paper. © Wolf Kahn. Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia. Gift of Jerald Melberg Gallery Inc., Charlotte, NC.
Wolf Kahn, Ezekiel Harris House, 1998. Pastel on paper. © Wolf Kahn. Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia. Gift of Jerald Melberg Gallery Inc., Charlotte, NC.
Wolf Kahn, Final Study for Cotton Barn, 1998. Pastel on paper. © Wolf Kahn. Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia. Gift of Jerald Melberg Gallery Inc., Charlotte, NC.
To honor Wolf Kahn our education staff created this painting of a barn (one of Mr. Kahn's favorite subjects). They did not paint the grass green because it is grass, instead they painted it a rainbow of colors, because when making art they can choose any color they want.