Wolf Kahn (American/German, 1927-2020)Overall GreenSigned bottom center, numbered and dated 126-1995 verso, oil on canvas.52 x 57 in. (132.1 x 145cm)PROVENANCE:Private Collection, Delaware.NOTE:Wolf Kahn's ethereal yet electric landscapes have drawn collectors to his work for decades. While his canvases typically depict familiar landscapes likely inspired by his surroundings in New York and Vermont, each one offers a unique exploration of color and luminescence. Trees and mountains, skies and fields are nearly always recognizable, but are often reduced to bands of color that play off one another in a way that approaches abstraction. In his earliest days as an artist, Kahn studied with Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann who once said, "in nature, light creates the color; in the picture, color creates light. Every color shade emanates a very characteristic light-no substitute is possible." [1] No doubt, Kahn's emphatic employment of pure color was shaped by this master artist and educator who influenced so many important artists of the mid-twentieth century.In the present work, a grove of trees is bathed in light, rendered in luminous limes and golden yellows. Their hue is intensified by the cool pinks and violets of the trunks, shadows and skies. A cool green field in the foreground is bisected by a curving, warm-toned path which widens towards the viewer at right, welcoming us into the lush and joyful composition.[1] Hans Hofmann quoted in Barbara Rose, Readings in American Art 1900-1975, New York: Praeger, 1975, p. 117.