Steve Kahn — his photos found new fame decades later
Steve Kahn, an artist whose minimal, muralscale photographs of the 1970s helped to convince a skeptical art world of his medium’s gravitas in the gallery, died Thursday. He was 74. His death, at Alta Bates Summit Hospital in Oakland, was announced by his San Francisco gallerist, Julie Casemore of Casemore Kirkeby.
Kahn was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 29, 1943, to Virginia and Eugene Kahn. He graduated from Reed College in 1966.
As early as 1973, his work was included in the exhibition “24 From LA” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. That same year he published an influential book, “Stasis,” which was followed by other important exhibitions. In 1980, he was awarded a fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 1986, however, he moved to New York to work as a commercial photographer, and his profile in the art context gradually faded. He eventually moved to Berkeley in 2012, and around the same time began again to show the earlier work.
His reintroduction was met with marked success, as works were acquired in the past two years by major institutions throughout the U.S., including the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and San Francisco’s de Young Museum and SFMOMA.
A solo exhibition of Kahn’s work, planned for September at the de Young, will proceed. In addition, a book, “Chemical Plants,” is to be published by Nazraeli Press later this year.
He is survived by his daughter, Zoe Kahn of New York, and sister, Susan Ansen of Los Angeles. He was married for 23 years to Zoe’s mother, Robin Amos Kahn, who lives in New York.
Charles Desmarais is The San Francisco Chronicle’s art critic. Email: cdesmarais@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Artguy1