The Wolfgang Wolff Foundation (WWF) is a recently formed 501c3 organization whose purpose is to preserve and promote the artwork and life story of Wolfgang Wolff.
The collection includes paintings, drawings, woodcuts / prints, jewelry, book illustrations and textile designs and has been exhibited internationally. The goal of the WWF is to display the work of Wolff as an independent museum as well as to integrate parts of the collection within other museums, most likely located in Western Europe, the U.S. and the Pacific Islands.
Wolfgang Wolff was a self-taught German artist. As a refugee of the Nazi regime living in exile in Tahiti (where he was later interned) Wolff documented the life and times of Tahiti during the 1930s and the war years through illustrated diaries and letters. In his paintings and woodcuts he interpreted Tahitian culture and landscape in a German Expressionist mode. From the 1950s to the 70s Wolff worked as a textile designer in Los Angeles. He was one of the originators of Polynesian fabric designs found in typical “Hawaiian” shirts.