The River on a Gray Day 2006

Wolf Kahn has made a painting of a river, the ochre and muted oranges are fighting it out with the steely grays. You can sense Kahn placing color next to color, allowing each to resonate and glow. The way Kahn handles paint feels so intuitive, like he’s right there in front of the scene, responding to it with each brushstroke. I imagine him outside squinting, trying to pull out the barest bones of color. It reminds me of the way Milton Avery flattened his paintings and made them almost like color charts. I can feel the artist standing there, considering the horizon line, how to create a space between earth and water. The ochre hill on the left looms large with just a hint of trees along the ridge. But it’s the bright flash of yellow that gets me, a horizontal line slashing across the gray. It’s as if Kahn is saying, “Even on a gray day, there’s still light, still hope.” And that’s what painting is all about, isn’t it? Finding the light in the darkness, the color in the gray.