Orange at the Horizon

In Orange at the Horizon, Wolf Kahn demonstrates his mastery of the pastel medium with rich bands of color juxtaposed to create the impression of that magical moment at the beginning or end of the day when the sun sets the horizon line ablaze with color. Applied with scumbled lines blended to form imperfectly delineated fields, the bold, purple-blue dominant hue reverberates against the burning orange pigment, which in turn transforms into a thin glowing line of yellow fading into the hot pink then peach sky. In the foreground, a yellow diagonal line draws the eye across the otherwise horizontally composed landscape.

Describing Kahn's "color statement," Louis Finkelstein writes, "Kahn is constantly seeking the new color for skies, the new color for foliage, the color that has never been used there before...In his later paintings, he poses the aim of simplicity, clarity, and austerity against the complexity and daring of using colors that have never been used before, for that purpose and in that combination, pushing the envelope of description by the most extravagant effects." (Wolf Kahn, New York, 1996, p. 118) Indeed, in Orange at the Horizon, Kahn distills the essence of the quotidian transition between night and day into an extraordinary panorama of pure color.