Masters of Color: Hunt Slonem and Wolf Kahn

Hunt Slonem (b.1951) surrounds himself with color. Pinks, violets, yellows …. are on the walls of his studio, his homes and on the feathers of the parrots and parakeets that he rescues and cares for. He also paints the birds, and butterflies and bunnies and monkeys and portraits of Abraham Lincoln.

 

The interiors he has designed for himself have been featured in Elle Decor France, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful and several books that reflect his exotic style. There is even a book about his art and homes: Pleasure Palaces: The Art & Homes of Hunt Slonem that includes text by Vincent Katz, the poet son of artist Alex Katz. 

 

Hunt Slonem’s works are part of the permanent collection of many museums around the world, includingTthe Met, The Guggenheim and The Whitney.

 

He divides his time between his studio in New York and two plantation houses in Louisiana, which are on the National Historic Register. 

 

Slonem got his BA in painting and art history from Tulane and he has drawn inspiration from the Louisiana landscape. The Cabildo, a Louisiana State Museum, is hosting a retrospective of Hunt Slonem’s works. “Hunt Slonem is one of the most accomplished painters and sculptors to study in Louisiana and call it home.” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. “He loved the state from the moment he arrived and drew inspiration from the beauty of our bayous and native plants. It is an honor for us to be able to host this exhibition at The Cabildo.”

 

Hunt Slonem: A Retrospective will be on exhibit through September 30, 2024. The paintings and sculptures in the exhibit have been lent exclusively by Louisiana patrons and museums. 

 

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 Wolf Kahn (1927-2020) filled his canvases with fields of color. Kahn lived and worked in New York but his inspiration was the landscape around his farm in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he and his artist wife, Emily Mason, spent summers and falls beginning in 1968.

 

Kahn’s colors are bold, yet his landscape paintings have a calm, bucolic sensitivity, as if he wanted to share his experience of place. “I’m always talking about accuracy.” he said. “I want an accuracy of feeling, really. So that what I’m painting and what I’m sensing is out there are in some sort of very close relationship.”

 

Wolf Kahn’s works are part of the permanent collection of The Met, MoMA, The Whitney, The Smithsonian and many other major museums and galleries.

 

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December 14, 2023