WOLF KAHN

THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE

AMERINGER

M c E N E RY

YO H E

525 West 22nd Street New York, NY 10011

tel 212 445 0051 www.amy-nyc.com
2
THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE

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 Kahn
New York City
March, 2012

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

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

6
 Stuyvesant Park, 1967
Pastel on paper
12 x 18 inches

8
 Early Pastel of St. George’s Church, NY, 1969
Pastel on paper
14 x 17 inches

10
 Over the Tops of Trees at Stuyvesant Park, 2003
Pastel on paper
12 x 12 inches

12
 Across Stuyvesant Park, NYC, 2003
Pastel on paper
14 x 11 inches

14
 Stuyvesant Park Bared of Trees, 2003
Pastel on paper
12 x 18 inches

16
 Across the Nearby Park, 2003
Pastel on paper
14 x 18 inches

18
 Street Trees, 2004
Pastel on paper
12 x 9 inches

20
 Evening Over Gramercy Park, 2007
Pastel on paper
14 x 11 inches

22
 Across the Middle of Stuyvesant Park, 2008
Pastel on paper
11 x 14 inches

24
 From Riverside Drive Park, 2008
Pastel on paper
11 x 14 inches

26
 In Stuyvesant Park, 2008
Pastel on paper
12 x 9 inches

28
 Tower, 2009
Pastel on paper
14 x 11 inches

30
 Looking Down the Street in New York, 2010
Pastel on paper
21 x 17 inches

32
 Across the Park, 2009
Oil on canvas
26 x 32 inches

34
 Stuyvesant Square (Almost Square), 2004
Oil on canvas
16 x 18 inches

36
 Overlooking the Park, 2003
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 inches

38
 Stuyvesant Park (NYC) in Winter, 2003
Oil on canvas
42 x 32 inches

40
 Small Gramercy Park Painting, 2008
Oil on canvas
18 x 20 inches

42
 Gramercy Park in October, 2007
Oil on canvas
22 x 30 inches

44
 Gramercy Park, 2008
Oil on canvas
43 x 72 inches

46
 Silvery Tower, 2012
Oil on canvas
30 x 16 inches

48
 Tower, 2012
Oil on canvas
23 x 16 inches

50
 Empire State, 2008
Oil on canvas
52 x 36 inches

52
 Published on the occasion of the exhibition
AMERINGER

M c E N E RY
WOLF KAHN
YO H E THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE
12 July – 17 August 2012

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