Vermont Cornfield 1969

Wolf Kahn made this pastel drawing of a Vermont cornfield with layered strokes, one on top of the other, that feels like an immediate response to being there, taking it all in. I love how the whole thing shimmers. Look at how he uses blue and purple along the horizon, and the way he lets the white of the paper peek through, especially in the foreground, giving it a vibrating energy. It’s all about the surface, the way the pastel sits on the paper, not quite blending, but creating this haze of color. See the marks at the bottom, those loose, scribbled lines in green and yellow? They don't exactly describe the cornfield, but they capture the feeling of being in it, the scratchy, dry, summery vibe of the place. It reminds me a bit of Milton Avery’s landscapes, with their simplified forms and focus on color relationships. But Kahn has his own thing going on, a kind of joyful, slightly off-kilter way of seeing the world.