A Glimmer of Landscape
Kay Kipling
Landscape painter Wolf Kahn, who emigrated from Germany as a teen, began serious painting in the late 1940s, studying with Hans Hoffman in New York and emerging as a member of the representational wing of a wave of abstract expressionism, along with artists like Fairfield Porter and Elaine de Kooning. Today he's still at it; this month's exhibition at Marianne Friedland Gallery celebrates his 75th birthday with a look at two dozen of his oil paintings (never before exhibited), pastels and works on paper.

Kahn's subjects range from a sunset over water to the light of a summer meadow, offering viewers the language of abstraction with just a perception of landscape. As Kahn has said, "I'm always trying to get to the danger point where color becomes either too sweet or too harsh or too noisy or too quiet. At the same time I want the picture to remain strong ..."

Kahn lives and works in New York and southern Vermont, but has frequently visited Naples for exhibitions and workshops; and many Naples art collectors own his works. A reception opens the exhibition from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2; call 262-3484 for more information.