Wolf Kahn (b.1927) Afterglow in Mexico, 1992 Oil on canvas, 44 1/8  x 61 ¼ in. Purchased with funds donated by the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation Born in Stuttgart, Germany to wealthy Jewish parents, Hans Wolfgang Kahn displayed a talent for drawing from an early age. His family encouraged their son’s gifts through private lessons and exposure to their private art collection. With the rise of the Nazis, however, Kahn and his family suffered loss of employment, segregation, and physical assault due to their Jewish heritage. 1939, Kahn escaped Germany thanks to a humanitarian effort to save Jewish children. In 1956, he met Emily Mason, an abstract painter, whom he married two years later on a trip to Venice. This extended trip in Italy marked a transition in Kahn’s career. Inspired by the subtle beauty of Venice and the abstraction he saw in his wife’s painting, Kahn was motivated to paint simplified landscapes with a heavy impasto. His lifelong obsession with color established a vital new style of landscape painting that helped Kahn remain intensely engaged with the process of creation, not only in terms of formal innovation but also emotionally.