Biography

LOUIS KAHAN AO 1905 - 2002

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1942-43 Galérie Pasteur, Oran, Algeria
1949 Newspaper House Art Gallery, Perth
1950 Georges Gallery, Melbourne
1951 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney; Moreton Galleries, Brisbane; Newspaper House Art Gallery, Perth; John Martin’s Art Gallery, Adelaide; Georges Gallery, Melbourne
1952 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane
1953 Georges Gallery, Melbourne; Boans Art Galley, Perth
1955 Royal Festival Hall, London
1956 Newspaper House Art Gallery, Perth
1959 Skinner Galleries, Perth
1961 Skinner Galleries, Perth
1963 Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1965 Artists in Profile, National Gallery of Victoria; Darlinghurst Galleries, Sydney
1966 Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane; Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne; Nundah Gallery, Canberra
1967 Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide
1969 Galérie de France, Cannes; Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne
1970 Victorian Friends of the Hebrew University, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne; Skinner Galleries, Perth
1971 Meanjin, Quarterly Portraits Exhibition, National Library of Australia, Canberra; Leveson Street Gallery, Melbourne
1972 Lidums Gallery, Adelaide; Villiers Fine Art, Sydney
1974 Lidums Gallery, Adelaide
1976 Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney; Lidums Gallery, Adelaide
1977 John Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle; Editions Gallery, Melbourne; Georges Gallery, Melbourne;
Wool Art Exhibition: Shearers and Sheep, Wool House, Melbourne; Shearers and Sheep, City of Hamilton Art Gallery, (also toured Horsham, Ballarat and Bendigo); Macquarie Galleries, Canberra; Fine Arts Gallery, Perth
1981 Great Music Makers, Opera House, Sydney; Portraits of Australian Writers University House, Melbourne University, and launching of book Australian Writers – the Face of Literature, Melbourne University Press
1982 Devonport Art Gallery, Tasmania; Greenhill Gallery, Adelaide; Greenhill Gallery, Perth
1983 Galérie Mitsukoshi, Paris; Marco Polo Gallery, Hobart; Bolitho Gallery, Canberra
1985 Galérie Mitsukoshi, Paris; Tynte Street Gallery, Adelaide
1986 Von Bertouch Galleries, Sydney
1987 Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney
1988 Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne
1989 Hugo Galleries, Canberra
1990 Niagara Galleries, Canberra; Book Launch Monograph of Loius Kahan by Lou Klepac
1991 Paris Sketchbook, Kensington Galleries, Adelaide; Adrian Slinger Galleries, Brisbane
1993 Paintings & Drawings, Stafford Studios, Cottesloe, WA
1994 Early Works on Paper, Kensington Festival Exhibition
1995 Louis Kahan at 90, Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney; Kensington Galleries, Adelaide
1996 A Grain of Sand: 50 Years of Printmaking, Chrysalis Gallery, Melbourne; 50 Years of Printmaking, Kensington Galleries, Adelaide; Stafford Studios, Cottesloe, WA
1997 Works on Paper 1946-1998, Editions Gallery, Melbourne; Louis Kahan: A Portrait, Retrospective Exhibition, Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourne; Stafford Studios, Cottesloe, WA
1998 The Great Music Makers, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne; Works on Paper 1946-1998, Sherman Galleries, Sydney; Kensington Galleries, Adelaide
Posthumous Exhibitions
2004 Drawing on life, Survey Exhibition, McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park, Langwarrin (also toured Horsham and Albury regional galleries, VIC); By a Guy from Paris, Exhibition of War Portraits, Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria
2005 Drawings by Dispatch: Portraits of U.S. servicemen by Louis Kahan, Australian Embassy, Washington DC, USA (works donated to the American Red Cross Museum, Washington DC); Drawings by Dispatch, US Consulate-General, Honolulu; Passion & Place, Survey Exhibition, Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Melbourne; The Great Music Makers: Drawing by Louis Kahan, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, (Victorian Art Centre’s own collection of 100 Drawings, and book launch The Great Music Makers); Chrysalis Gallery, Melbourne; Celebrating the centenary of his birth, Kensington Galleries, Adelaide
2006 Sheep & Shearers: Paintings, Drawings & Prints, Hamilton Art Gallery, VIC

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (Selection from more than fifty between 1941 – 1998)
1941 Triennale de Casablanca
1942 Sousscription Nationale; Musée des Beaux Artes, Algiers
1944 Galérie de Paris, Algiers
1945 L’Union Nationale Espagnole, Oran, Algiers
1949 Society of Artists, Sydney; David Jones Gallery, Sydney (Stage Design)
1952 Melbourne Contemporary Artists, Victorian Artists Society; Blake Prize; Albury Art Prize
1953 Archibald Reject Exhibition, Sydney
1954 Royal Tour Exhibition, Melbourne Town Hall
1957 Exhibition of Australian Art, Australian Artists Association, Imperial Institute Galleries, London;
Selected paintings from the Archibald, Wyne and Sulman Competition
1962 Transfield Art Prize, David Jones Gallery, Sydney; The Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of NSW
1967 Some Interesting Australians, Portrait Exhibition, Georges Gallery, Melbourne
1968 Panorama of Australian Painting, 1818 – 1968, Studley House, Melbourne
1969 Australian Portrait Painting, Joseph Brown Gallery; The Travelodge Collection, touring Australia and overseas
1971 The New 9x5 Impression Exhibition, Rosalind Humphries Gallery, Melbourne
1972 Contemporary Australian Portraits, Joseph Brown Gallery
1978 The Artists’ Choice, Realities, Melbourne
1984 Galérie Breherel, Paris
1985 Galérie Mitsukoshi, Paris
1989 Prints and Australia: Pre-settlement to Present, Australian National Gallery, Canberra; Two Jewish Artists of the Theatre, Westpac Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne; A Gift to the Gallery, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1990 Estampes et ‘livres d’artistes’ du xxe siècle: Enrichissements du Cabinet des Estampes 1978-1988, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
2005 Kensington Galleries, Adelaide, Group Exhibition and book launch, The Great Music Makers (posthumous)

REPRESENTED IN THE FOLLOWING COLLECTIONS IN AUSTRALIA
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
National Library of Australia
Parliament House, Canberra
All Australian State Galleries
Australian War Memorial
Regional Galleries in Albury, Ararat, Ballarat, Bendigo, Benalla, Devonport, Geelong, Hamilton, Horsham, Launceston, Mosman, Newcastle, New England, Rockhampton, Warnambool.
Univerities of Melbourne, La Trobe, Deakin, Flinders, Western Australia, Sydney, Monash, Murdoch, Queensland, Canberra.
Colleges of Advanced Eduation in Canberra and Melbourne.
McLelland Gallery & Sculpture Park, Langwarrin
Caulfield Arts Centre
Teachers’ Colleges in Melbourne, Geelong, Rusden, and Perth
Sydey Opera House
S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre
Queen’s College Chapel, Melbourne
The Great Synagogue, Sydney
St Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne

RECENT ACQUISITIONS
2002 National Gallery of Victoria, Portrait of Max Meldrum
2005 National Gallery of Victoria, Five works on Paper, and Sketchbook from Foreign Legion, (posthumous)
2005 McLelland Gallery & Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Portrait of George Bell, (posthumous)
2006 National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Portrait of Professor Harry Messel, and drawings on paper of 8 prominent
Australians, (posthumous)

OVERSEAS COLLECTIONS
Albertina Museum, Vienna
American Red Cross Museum, Washington DC
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Dunedin Art Gallery
Musée de la Marine, Paris
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
National Army Museum, London
Portland Art Museum, Oregon, USA
Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, UK
Royal Airforce Museum, London
US Army Center of Military History, Washington DC
US Military Academy, West Point, NY
Universities of Jerusalem, Texas, Philadelphia and Pensylvania, USA
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Worcester Foundation, Massacheusetts, USA
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

AWARDS
1952 Albury Prize
1953 Mosman Prize
1961 Bendigo Prize
1962 Archibald Prize
1964 Royal National (Agricultural), Brisbane (also 1966 & 1967)
1976 Kinselar Drawing Purchase; Worland Print Purchase
1980 Pedersen Print Prize; Caulfield Print Purchase
1983 Caulfield Drawing Prize
1986 Drumoyne Print Prize
1993 Awarded the A.O (Officer of the Order of Australia) for his service to the Arts
1994 Painters and Sculptors Prize

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monograph of Loius Kahan, Lou Klepac, 1990, The Beagle Press, Sydney
Louis Kahan: a Portrait, Exhibition Catalogue, 1997, Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourne
Louis Kahan: drawing on life, Exhibition Catalogue, Lesley Harding, 2004, McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park, Langwarrin
Louis Kahan: Great Music Makers, Introduction by Michael Shmith, 2005, Macmillan Art Publishing,

BOOKS & ARTICLES BY THE ARTIST
‘Design for Opera’, The Canon, Australian Journal of Music, Vol. 5, no.11, June 1952
Australian Writers: The Face of Literature, Melbourne University Press, 1981
Ten Stained Glass Windows, York Press, 1982
‘A sketch of my life’, Karl Bittman Ed., Strauss to Matilda: Viennese in Australia 1938-1988, Wenkart Foundation, 1988

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