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Lot 8 Fields of Vision: The Private Collection of Artists Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason
HANS HOFMANN (1880-1966)
Bouquet
Closed18 May 2021
Price Realised
USD 97,500
More Information
Specialist note
In 1947, after enlisting in the U.S. Navy and a short period of study with Stuart Davis at The New School, Wolf Kahn enrolled in the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. A fellow German speaker, Kahn soon became the heavily-accented Hofmann’s translator for the rest of the class, which he parlayed into tuition-free attendance as the class monitor at summer school in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His classmates included Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher and Nell Blaine.
Kahn studied under Hofmann for another eighteen months, later reflecting on his studies, “The most important thing that Hofmann transmitted to his students is this idea of art being something that fills your whole life...something in which your whole intuition is constantly at work.” (Archives of American Art, Dorothy Gees Seckler collection of sound recordings relating to art and artists, interview with Wolf Kahn, September 17, 1968)
The present work was originally acquired in 1943 by Emily Mason’s aunt, Margaret T. Jennings, also an artist who had studied at the Hofmann School. Mason hung the work in her New York City studio.
Kahn studied under Hofmann for another eighteen months, later reflecting on his studies, “The most important thing that Hofmann transmitted to his students is this idea of art being something that fills your whole life...something in which your whole intuition is constantly at work.” (Archives of American Art, Dorothy Gees Seckler collection of sound recordings relating to art and artists, interview with Wolf Kahn, September 17, 1968)
The present work was originally acquired in 1943 by Emily Mason’s aunt, Margaret T. Jennings, also an artist who had studied at the Hofmann School. Mason hung the work in her New York City studio.