Wolf Kahn studied under Hans Hofmann, and graduated from the University of Chicago.
26 Facts About Wolf Kahn
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Wolf Kahn was a resident of both New York City and, during the summer and autumn, West Brattleboro, Vermont.
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Wolf Kahn was born in 1927 in Stuttgart, Germany, the fourth child of Emil and Nellie Budge Kahn.
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Wolf Kahn's father was a notable figure in the music world.
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In 1933, Wolf Kahn's father lost his appointment with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra when Adolf Hitler came into power and, with increasing antisemitism sweeping Germany, he and his second wife left with Wolf Kahn's three siblings for the United States.
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Wolf Kahn stated that he began drawing at the age of four.
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Wolf Kahn drew every day and was inspired by military pageantry, Napoleonic Wars and prominent historical figures including Adolph Menzel and Frederick the Great.
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In 1939, when Wolf Kahn was 12 years old, his grandmother arranged for him to leave Germany for England to live with a host family, first with the John Wade family and then with the Purvis Family.
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In 1942, Wolf Kahn was accepted for his sophomore year at the High School of Music and Art in New York City.
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Wolf Kahn cited David Low and Thomas Nast as his favorite cartoonists.
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Wolf Kahn became Hofmann's studio assistant by the summer of 1947 at Hofmann's Provincetown, Massachusetts, studio.
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In 1949, Wolf Kahn was accepted into the University of Chicago's Hutchins Program, where he completed a bachelor's degree in eight months.
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Wolf Kahn's very first exhibition was a group show titled, New Provincetown '47, curated by Clement Greenberg at the Seligmann Gallery on 57th Street in New York.
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The next exhibition would be self-organized by Wolf Kahn titled 813 Broadway in 1951.
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Wolf Kahn returned to New York City with an offer to join Grace Borgenicht Gallery in 1955.
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Wolf Kahn's gallery had been in existence on 57th Street since May 1951.
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In 1960, Wolf Kahn accepted a position as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Until his death, Wolf Kahn remained very active, still creating new work and exhibiting multiple times per year.
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In Winter of 2017, Wolf Kahn celebrated his 90th birthday with an exhibition of over fifty recent paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery.
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Wolf Kahn received a number of awards including a Fulbright Scholarship in 1962, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966, and an Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1979.
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Wolf Kahn received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Vermont Council on the Arts 1998 and the National Academy in 2006.
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Wolf Kahn received the University of Chicago Outstanding Alumni Professional Achievement Award in 2012 and the US State Department awarded him the International Medal of Art in 2017.
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Wolf Kahn has honorary doctorates from Wheaton College, 2000 and Union College.
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Wolf Kahn became a member of the National Academy of Design in 1980 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1984.
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Wolf Kahn was on the Board of Trustees for Marlboro College, in Marlboro, Vermont, and was an honorary trustee at the Brattleboro Museum in Brattleboro, Vermont.
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In 2005 the Smithsonian Art Collectors Program commissioned Wolf Kahn to produce a print to benefit the cultural and educational programs of the Smithsonian Associates.