Scott Kahn was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Bennett Jordan Kahn, and Anne (née Moss) Kahn. Bennett Kahn was the founding publisher of The Jewish Weekly News, an English-language newspaper for the Jewish community in Western Massachusetts, and Anne Kahn was a homemaker. Bennett Kahn died in 1952 of a heart attack when Scott Kahn was six years old. In 1954, Anne Kahn remarried to Irving Rothchild, the owner of printing company Springfield Offset & Printing Co.[2]
Scott Kahn began kindergarten at a public school in West Springfield, then transferred to a Jewish school in Springfield for approximately a year, before transferring to a public school in West Springfield where he remained until the fourth grade. During his time in school in West Springfield, Kahn received his initial exposure to fine art in art instruction offered at his school. Kahn later recalled his instructor assigning him to draw an imaginary bird which was featured on the class bulletin board for its mastery. When Kahn's mother remarried, the family relocated to the affluent community of Longmeadow, where he attended Converse Street School and remained until beginning junior high school. During that time, he took art classes at the basement of the Springfield Museum. While attending Longmeadow Junior High School, Kahn received lessons in clarinet, violin, and piano.[2]
Kahn began at Longmeadow High School in 1959. During high school, the dynamic of his home life changed, primarily with the relationship with his stepfather, who was unsympathetic to Kahn's creative and social development. Kahn found solace in his neighbor, Cherry Fabe Michelman, an heiress and professor at University of Massachusetts, who encouraged his interest in art, language, and music. In his freshman year, Kahn began art classes at his school as well as extracurricular classes in painting at Baypath Junior College. Later in high school, Kahn and a close friend took adult art classes at the Springfield Museum where he was first exposed to painting from the live female nude model. He also played violin in the high school orchestra, took private piano lessons in downtown Springfield, and attended summer music camp classes at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where he sang in the chorus and played in the orchestra. Additionally, Kahn took private adult painting classes under a local professional artist in rural Enfield, Connecticut. In his senior year, Kahn was tasked with creating the illustrations for his high school yearbook. He graduated in 1963.[2]
Legal Issues
HORNAK-SPOUTZ v KAHN. On October 28, 2024, art dealer and curator, Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz filed a civil complaint in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester, against Scott Kahn.[3][4] The complaint alleged a long term close personal friendship and professional relationship between Hornak-Spoutz and Kahn dating to 2011 which included Hornak-Spoutz’s longterm representation of Kahn’s artwork in Hornak-Spoutz’s galleries.[3][4] One such exhibition referenced was contemporaneously widely publicized in the media at Hornak-Spoutz’s gallery in 2014, Gallery 928, at the Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village in Cape Coral, Florida.[3][4][5][6] Further alleged was that Hornak had arranged the acquisitions of Kahn’s artwork into the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Schmidt Foundation Center for Art and Design at Fort Hays State University, which culminated in a large exhibition of Kahn’s work at the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art at Fort Hays State University in 2024.[3][4][7][8][9] The complaint alleged that Hornak-Spoutz had, with Kahn’s knowledge and consent, made arrangements with Johnathan Crockett, Chairman of Philips Asia, for a $40,000,000 to $60,000,000 USD retrospective exhibition of Kahn’s artwork at Philips Asia’s headquarters at WKCDA Tower in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong.[3][4] The complaint further alleged that following Hornak-Spoutz’s having signed an agreement with Philips Asia for the exhibition which secured the time-slot, October 26, 2023 - November 5, 2023, targeting 50 to 60 artworks by Kahn, and following Hornak-Spoutz and Kahn’s mutual planning and curation of the exhibition, Kahn, without warning and in close proximity to the opening of the exhibition, terminated and defaulted on the exhibition. The complained also alleged that, at Kahn’s request, Hornak-Spoutz used Hornak-Spoutz’s own personal, professional, and family connections to introduce Kahn to the senior director of the David Zwirner Gallery for the purpose of securing commercial representation of Kahn’s artwork at the gallery.[3][4] It was further alleged that Kahn was displeased with his then current representation at the Almine Rech Ruiz-Picasso Gallery in Paris which had prompted Kahn’s request to Hornak-Spoutz for transfer to Zwirner.[3][4] Alleged in the complaint, following Hornak-Spoutz’s introduction of Kahn to Zwirner, Kahn conspired with Zwirner to circumvent Hornak-Spoutz in the negotiations for obtaining representation in an effort to avoid compensating Hornak-Spoutz.[4][3] The David Zwirner Gallery subsequently announced global representation of Kahn with a November 2024 debut Kahn exhibition at the David Zwirner Gallery in Hong Kong.[3][10] The complaint sought $7,500,000 in damages from Kahn to be awarded to Hornak-Spoutz.[3][4]
Following graduation from University of Pennsylvania, Kahn applied to several graduate fine arts programs and was rejected from each. To fortify his fine arts credentials, Kahn enrolled in Theodoros Stamos’ class at the Art Students League of New York in 1967–1968.[1][2]
At the conclusion of his class at the Art Students League of New York, Kahn reapplied to graduate fine arts programs and was accepted into multiple. He chose the Master of Fine Arts program at Rutgers University—New Brunswick because of its proximity to New York City. Kahn was conferred a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University—New Brunswick in 1970.[1][2]
Career
Scott Kahn was under representation for 25 years by the Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery in New York City where he had numerous solo exhibitions. In 2004, a retrospective exhibition of his work was mounted at the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania. Kahn has been the recipient of awards from significant organizations including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York City and the Edward Albee Foundation in Montauk, New York.
Art market
On May 25, 2022, a painting by Kahn titled Big House: Homage to America set his world auction record when it sold for $1,439,987 USD at Christie's in Hong Kong surpassing a November 30, 2021 world record for Kahn at Phillips in Hong Kong of US$961,286 for his painting titled Cadman Plaza.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Additionally, many paintings by Kahn have sold at auction globally via Bonhams, Christie's, Phillip's, and Sotheby's for in excess of US$500,000.[18] In the galleryretail sector, the Almine Rech Gallery set Kahn's world record with the sale of his painting, The Curtains Parted for US$1,200,000.[19][20]
