Louis Kahan was one of Australia's most consummate draftsman. Characterised by its richness, nervous energy, luminosity and freshness, the drawings, prints & paintings together form an unrivalled body of work of supreme craft, imagination & observation.

Louis Kahan trained as a master tailor in Vienna before moving to Paris in 1925 where he designed for Paul Poiret's fashion house, as well as working as a newspaper illustrator. During World War II he served with the French Foreign Legion and worked as a war artist, making portraits of wounded allied soldiers. In 1947 he joined his family in Perth where he concentrated on his art. His first solo exhibition was opened by the then Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Robert Campbell, who acquired a watercolour & an etching for the Gallery, the first works by Louis Kahan to be held in a public collection.

Moving to Melbourne in 1950, the next 52 years were ones of extraordinary creative output and achievement, including being awarded the 1962 Archibald Prize with his portrait of Patrick White. He has left a legacy of drawings, prints and paintings of twentieth century lives and life.

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 Gallery, Perth
1955 Royal Festival Hall, London
1956 Newspaper House Art Gallery, Perth
1959 & 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 & 1974 Lidums Gallery, Adelaide; Villiers Fine Art, Sydney
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 Louis Kahan by Lou Klepac
1991 Paris Sketchbook, Kensington Galleries, Adelaide; Adrian Slinger Galleries, Brisbane

1992 Retrospective of drawings & watercolours, Art Gallery of Western Australia
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

2009 Intelligentsia: Louis Kahan's portraits of writers; Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, VIC

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

OVERSEAS COLLECTIONS
Albertina Museum, Vienna; American Red Cross Museum, Washington DC; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; British Museum, London; 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.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monograph of Louis 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 Smith, 2005, Macmillan Art Publishing,