Hans Hofmann
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Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced
Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
.de la Croix, Horst and Richard G. Tansey. ''Gardner's Art Through the Ages'', 7th Ed., New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, p. 857-8. Born and educated near Munich, he was active in the early twentieth-century European
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
and brought a deep understanding and synthesis of
Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sy ...
,
Neo-impressionism Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat's most renowned masterpiece, ''A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'', marked the beginnin ...
,
Fauvism Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...
, and
Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
when he emigrated to the United States in 1932.Chipp, Herschel B. ''Theories of Modern Art'', Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968, p. 511–2. Hofmann's painting is characterized by its rigorous concern with pictorial structure and unity, spatial illusionism, and use of bold color for expressive means.Seitz, William C. ''Hans Hofmann'', New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1963.Harrison, Charles and Paul Wood. ''Art in Theory: 1900–1990'', Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1992, p. 354. The influential critic
Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formal ...
considered Hofmann's first New York solo show at
Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with t ...
’s Art of This Century in 1944 (along with
Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...
’s in late 1943) as a breakthrough in painterly versus geometric abstraction that heralded abstract expressionism.Greenberg, Clement. “After Abstract Expressionism,” ''Art International'', Vol. VI, No. 8, October 1962. In the decade that followed, Hofmann's recognition grew through numerous exhibitions, notably at the Kootz Gallery, culminating in major retrospectives at the
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
(1957) and
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
(1963), which traveled to venues throughout the United States, South America, and Europe.Hans Hofmann.org. Biographical Chronology
Hans Hofmann.org
Retrieved June 25, 2018.
His works are in the permanent collections of major museums around the world, including the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
,
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...
,
Germanisches Nationalmuseum The Germanisches National Museum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day. The Germanisches National ...
,
National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, and
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
. Hofmann is also regarded as one of the most influential art teachers of the 20th century. He established an art school in Munich in 1915 that built on the ideas and work of Cézanne, the Cubists and
Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj;  – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
; some art historians suggest it was the first modern school of art anywhere. After relocating to the United States, he reopened the school in both New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts until he retired from teaching in 1958 to paint full-time. His teaching had a significant influence on post-war American avant-garde artists—including
Helen Frankenthaler Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
,
Nell Blaine Nell Blair Walden Blaine (July 10, 1922 in Richmond, Virginia – November 14, 1996 in New York City) was an American landscape painter, expressionist, and watercolorist. From Richmond, Virginia, she had most of her career based in New York City ...
,
Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination betw ...
,
Joan Mitchell Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...
,
Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...
, and
Larry Rivers Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg) (1923 – 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was one of the first artists ...
, among many—as well as on the theories of Greenberg, in his emphasis on the medium, picture plane, and unity of the work. Some of Hofmann's other key tenets include his push/pull spatial theories, his insistence that abstract art has its origin in nature, and his belief in the spiritual value of art.Hofmann, Hans. ''Search for the Real and Other Essays'', eds. S. T. Weeks and B. H. Hayes, Jr., Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1948. Hofmann died of a heart attack in New York City on February 17, 1966.


Biography

Hans Hofmann was born in Weißenburg,
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
on March 21, 1880 to Theodor Friedrich Hofmann (1855–1903) and Franziska Manger Hofmann (1849–1921). In 1886, his family moved to Munich, where his father took a job with the government. From a young age, Hofmann gravitated towards science and mathematics. At age sixteen, he followed his father into public service, working for the Bavarian government as assistant to the director of Public Works. He increased his knowledge of mathematics there, eventually developing and patenting devices including an electromagnetic comptometer, a radar device for ships at sea, a sensitized light bulb, and a portable freezer unit for military use. During this time, Hofmann also became interested in creative studies, beginning art lessons between 1898 and 1899 with German artist Moritz Heymann. Between 1900 and 1904, Hofmann met his future wife, Maria “Miz” Wolfegg (1885–1963) in Munich, and also became acquainted with Philipp Freudenberg, owner of Berlin's high-end department store, Kaufhaus Gerson, and an avid art collector. Freudenberg became Hofmann's patron over the next decade, enabling him to relocate and live in Paris with Miz. In Paris, Hofmann studied at the
Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acadé ...
and Académie Colarossi.Guggenheim Museum
Hans Hofmann
Collection Online. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
Tate
Academie Colarossi
''Tate.org''. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
He also immersed himself in Paris's avant-garde art scene, working with
Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
and becoming friends with
Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
, and
Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
and
Sonia Delaunay Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...
. Hoffman worked and exhibited in Paris until the onset of World War I, producing paintings most influenced by the Cubists and Cézanne. Forced to return to Germany, and excluded from military service because of a respiratory condition, Hofmann opened an art school in Munich in 1915, developing a reputation as a forward-thinking instructor. In 1930, he was invited to teach on the west coast of the United States, which ultimately paved the way for him to permanently settle in the United States in 1932, where he resided until the end of his life. Hofmann and Miz would live apart for six years, until she procured an immigration visa to the United States in 1939. Between 1933 and 1958, Hofmann balanced his studio work with teaching, and as he did in Paris, immersed himself in (and influenced) New York's growing avant-garde art scene. He reopened his art school in 1934, conducting classes in New York and in Provincetown during summer. In 1941, he became an American citizen. During this time, his work drew increasing attention and acclaim critics, dealers and museums. In 1958, he retired from teaching to focus on painting, which led to a late-career efflorescence (at age seventy-eight) of his work. In 1963, Miz Hofmann, his partner and wife for over sixty years, passed away after a surgery. Two years later, Hofmann married Renate Schmitz, who remained with him until his death from a heart attack in New York City on February 17, 1966, just prior to his 86th birthday.


Work and exhibitions

Hofmann's art is generally distinguished by its rigorous concern with pictorial structure and unity, development of spatial illusion through the “push and pull” of color, shape and placement, and use of bold, often primary color for expressive means. In the first decades of the century, he painted in a modernist, though still identifiably representational style, creating landscapes, still lifes and portraits largely influenced by Cubism and Cézanne in terms of form, and Kandinsky, Matisse and Van Gogh in terms of color. He began an extended period focused solely on drawing some time in the 1920s, returning to painting in 1935. By 1940, however, he began to paint completely abstract works such as ''Spring'', a small oil on panel “drip” painting. Art historians have described that work, and others such as ''The Wind'' (1942), ''Fantasia'' (1943) and ''Effervescence'' (1944), in terms of their “painterly attacks,” jolting contrasts, rich color, and gestural spontaneity as “records of the artist’s intense experience” of paint, color, and processes that were arbitrary, accidental and direct, as well as intentional. They demonstrate Hofmann's early stylistic experimentation with the techniques that would be termed “action painting,” which Pollock and others made famous by the end of the decade.Berkeley Art Museu
"The Making of a Modernist: Hans Hofmann,"
Retrieved June 26, 2018.
Hofmann believed that abstract art was a way to get at important reality, once stating that “the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary, so that the necessary may speak.” Hofmann's work in the 1940s was championed by several key figures who initiated a new era of growing influence for art dealers and galleries, including Peggy Guggenheim,
Betty Parsons Betty Parsons (born Betty Bierne Pierson, January 31, 1900 – July 23, 1982) was an American artist, art dealer, and collector known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She is regarded as one of the most influential and dynamic f ...
, and
Samuel M. Kootz Samuel M. Kootz (23 August 1898 – 7 August 1982) was a New York City art dealer and author whose Kootz Gallery was one of the first to champion Abstract Expressionist Art.Grace Glueck, "Samuel M. Kootz Dead at 83; An Activist for American Art," '' ...
. His first New York solo show at Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery in 1944 was positively reviewed in the ''New York Times'', ''ARTnews'' and ''Arts Digest''. Critic Clement Greenberg regarded that show—and Jackson Pollock's a few months prior—as a “break-out” from the “cramping hold of Synthetic Cubism” on American painting, which opened the path to the more painterly style of abstract expressionism. That same year, Hofmann was also featured in a solo exhibition at The Arts Club of Chicago, and two key group shows of Abstract and Surrealist art in America, curated by
Sidney Janis Sidney Janis (July 8, 1896 – November 23, 1989) was a wealthy clothing manufacturer and art collector who opened an art gallery in New York City, New York in 1948. His gallery quickly gained prominence, for he not only exhibited work by the Abs ...
and Parsons. Reviewing a 1945 Hofmann exhibit, Greenberg wrote, “Hofmann has become a force to be reckoned with in the practice as well as in the interpretation of modern art.” Not all critics were uniform in praise; for example, Robert Coates, one of the first to call the new work “abstract expressionism,” expressed skepticism about the “spatter-and-daub” style of painting in a 1946 review of Hofmann's work.Coates, Robert M. ‘The Art Galleries’, ''New Yorker'', March 30, 1946, p.83. In 1947, Hofmann began exhibiting annually at the Kootz Gallery in New York (and would do so every year through 1966, except 1948 when the gallery temporarily closed), and over the next decade continued to gain recognition. In his later period, Hofmann often worked less gesturally, creating works such as ''The Gate'' (1959–60), ''Pompeii'' (1959) or ''To Miz - Pax Vobiscum'' (a 1964 memorial after her death), that were loosely devoted to architectonic volumes and sometimes referred to as his “slab paintings.”Guggenheim Museum
Hans Hofmann, ''The Gate''
Collection Online, 1959–60. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
The Art Story

Retrieved June 26, 2018.
In these works, he used rectangles of sensual color that reinforced the shape of his consistent easel-painting format and sometimes suggested a modular logic, yet escaped definitive readings through areas of modulated paint and irregular shapes.Warner, Emily
''Pompeii'', 1959 by Hans Hofmann
''Tate Modern'', Research Publications. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
In 1957, the Whitney Museum put up a large retrospective on Hofmann, which traveled to seven additional museums in the United States over the next year. In his review of the retrospective, critic
Harold Rosenberg Harold Rosenberg (February 2, 1906 – July 11, 1978) was an American writer, educator, philosopher and art critic. He coined the term Action Painting in 1952 for what was later to be known as abstract expressionism. Rosenberg is best known for ...
wrote, “No American artist could mount a show of greater coherent variety than Hans Hofmann.” In 1960, Hofmann was selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, alongside
Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising ...
,
Franz Kline Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mothe ...
and Theodore Roszak.Baltimore Museum of Art
Installation view, paintings by Franz Kline and Hans Hofmann, Venice Biennale, 1960
, The Baltimore Museum of Art Library and Archives. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
In 1963, The Museum of Modern Art gave a full-scale retrospective, organized by William Seitz, with a catalogue that included excerpts from Hofmann's writings. The exhibit traveled in the next two years to five other venues in the U.S., museums in Buenos Aires and Caracas, and finally to five venues in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. Posthumous retrospectives of Hofmann's work include shows at the
Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was des ...
(1976), Whitney Museum (1990), and London's Tate Gallery ("Hans Hofmann: Late Paintings," 1988), which was curated by the British painter
John Hoyland John Hoyland RA (12 October 1934 – 31 July 2011) was a London-based British artist. He was one of the country's leading abstract painters.
. Hoyland first encountered Hofmann's work during his first visit to New York in 1964, in the company of Clement Greenberg, and had been immediately impressed.


Teaching

Hofmann was renowned not only as an artist but also as a teacher of art, both in his native Germany and later in the U.S. His value as a teacher lay in the consistency and uncompromising rigor of his artistic standards and his ability to teach the fundamental principles of postwar abstraction to a diverse body of students. He founded his first school, Schule für Bildende Kunst (School of Fine Art) in Munich in 1915, building on the ideas and work of Cézanne, the Cubists, and Kandinsky. His hands-on teaching methods included ongoing discussion of art theory, life drawing sessions, and regular critiques from Hofmann himself, a practice which was a rarity in the Academy. By the mid-1920s, he attained a reputation as a forward-thinking teacher and was attracting an international array of students seeking more avant-garde instruction, including
Alf Bayrle Alf Bayrle (15 December 1900 – 11 September 1982), also known as Alf Singer-Bayrle, was a German painter, printmaker and sculptor. Life Bayrle was born in Biberach an der Riss. After his military service and participation in the First Worl ...
,
Alfred Jensen Alfred Julio Jensen (11 December 1903 – 4 April 1981) was an abstract painter. His paintings are often characterized by grids of brightly colored triangles, circles or squares, painted in thick impasto. Conveying a complex web of ideas, often ...
,
Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...
,
Wolfgang Paalen Wolfgang Robert Paalen (July 22, 1905 in Vienna, Austria – September 24, 1959 in Taxco, Mexico) was an Austrian-Mexican painter, sculptor, and art philosopher. A member of the Abstraction-Création group from 1934 to 1935, he joined the infl ...
,
Worth Ryder Wood Allen Ryder (November 10, 1884 – February 17, 1960), was an American artist, curator, and art professor. He has been credited as being, "largely responsible for the United States early interest in avant garde art". Life Worth Allen Ryder w ...
, and Bistra Vinarova. Art historian Herschel Chipp asserted that the school was likely the first school of modern art in existence. Hofmann ran the school, including summer sessions held throughout Germany, and in Austria, Croatia, Italy and France until he emigrated to the U.S. in 1932. In the U.S., he initially taught a summer session at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1930, at the invitation of former student Worth Ryder, then a member of the art faculty. He taught again at Berkeley and at the
Chouinard Art Institute The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney guided the merger of the Chouinard Art In ...
in Los Angeles the next year before again returning to Germany. After relocating to New York City, he began teaching at the
Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...
in 1933. By 1934, Hofmann opened his own schools in New York and in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Many notable artists studied with him, including
Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination betw ...
,
Helen Frankenthaler Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
,
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,
Larry Rivers Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg) (1923 – 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was one of the first artists ...
,
Allan Kaprow Allan Kaprow (August 23, 1927 – April 5, 2006) was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as ...
,
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,
Nell Blaine Nell Blair Walden Blaine (July 10, 1922 in Richmond, Virginia – November 14, 1996 in New York City) was an American landscape painter, expressionist, and watercolorist. From Richmond, Virginia, she had most of her career based in New York City ...
, Irene Rice Pereira,
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,
Ward Jackson Ward Jackson (September 10, 1928 in Petersburg, Virginia – February 3, 2004) was an American visual artist most closely associated with post painterly abstraction and minimalism, an archivist at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the co-fou ...
,
Fritz Bultman Fritz Bultman (April 4, 1919 – July 20, 1985) was an American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor, and collagist and a member of the New York School of artists. Biography A. Fred Bultman was the second child and only son of A. Fred and ...
, Israel Levitan,
Robert De Niro, Sr. Robert Henry De Niro (May 3, 1922 – May 3, 1993), better known as Robert De Niro Sr.,According to the Social Security Death Index. Searchable at http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/ssdi was an American abstract expressionist painter a ...
,
Jane Freilicher Jane Freilicher (November 19, 1924 – December 9, 2014) was an American representational painter of urban and country scenes from her homes in lower Manhattan and Water Mill, Long Island. She was a member of the informal New York School beginni ...
,
Wolf Kahn Wolf Kahn (October 4, 1927 – March 15, 2020) was a German-born American painter. Kahn, known for his combination of Realism and Color Field, worked in pastel, oil paint, and printmaking. He studied under Hans Hofmann, and also graduated from ...
,
Marisol Escobar Marisol Escobar (May 22, 1930 – April 30, 2016), otherwise known simply as Marisol, was a Venezuelan-American sculptor born in Paris, who lived and worked in New York City. She became world-famous in the mid-1960s, but lapsed into relative obsc ...
, Burgoyne Diller, James Gahagan,
Richard Stankiewicz Richard Stankiewicz (1922–1983) was an American sculptor, known for his work in scrap metal. Stankiewicz was born in Philadelphia, but spent his formative years in Detroit. He began painting and sculpting while in the United States Navy, in ...
, Linda Lindeberg, Lillian Orlowsky,
Louisa Matthíasdóttir Louisa Matthíasdóttir (February 20, 1917 – February 26, 2000) was an Icelandic- American painter. Louisa was born in Reykjavík. From 1925 to 1937 she grew up in the famous Höfði house since her family resided there. She showed artistic ab ...
and
Nína Tryggvadóttir Nína Tryggvadóttir (March 16, 1913 – June 18, 1968) was born Jónína Tryggvadóttir in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. She was one of Iceland's most important abstract expressionist artists and one of very few Icelandic female artists of her g ...
. Beulah Stevenson, a long-time curator at the
Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
, was also among his pupils. In 1958, Hofmann closed his schools in order to devote himself exclusively to his own creative work. In 1963, The Museum of Modern Art curated the traveling exhibit "Hans Hofmann and His Students," which included 58 works representing 51 artists. Despite being credited with teaching a number of the most gifted women artists of the period—at a time when they were still somewhat rare—Hofmann has sometimes been described as exhibiting a “straightforward male chauvinist posture.”Gaze, Delia (Editor)
''Dictionary of Women Artists''
Routledge, 1997.
Lee Krasner, who remained a devotee, likened some of his critiques to the back-handed praise earlier women artists often experienced (for example, “so good, you'd never know it was done by a woman!"). Sculptor
Lila Katzen Lila Katzen (30 December 1925, in Brooklyn, NY – 20 September 1998, in New York, NY), born Lila Pell, was an American sculptor of fluid, large-scale metal abstractions. Education and early work Katzen was born and raised in Brooklyn. She atten ...
has related that he told her that "only men had the wings for art."Tighe, Mary Ann
"Restoring the Lost Art of Women Painters,"
''Washington Post'', October 28, 1979. Retrieved June 25, 2018.


Writing

Hofmann's influential writing on modern art have been collected in the book ''Search for the Real and Other Essays'' (1948), which includes his discussions of his push/pull spatial theories, his reverence for nature as a source for art, his conviction that art has spiritual value, and his philosophy of art in general. In formal terms, he is especially noteworthy as a theorist of the medium who argued that "each medium of expression has its own order of being," that "color is a plastic means of creating intervals," and his awareness of a painting's frame, represented by his quote, "any line placed on the canvas is already the fifth."Hofmann, Hans. ''Search for the Real and Other Essays'', ed. Sara T. Weeks and Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr., Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1967. Hofmann believed in remaining faithful to the flatness of the canvas support, and that to suggest depth and movement in a painting an artist must create what he called "push and pull" in the image—contrasts of color, form, and texture. Hofmann held a strong conviction about the spiritual and social value of art. In 1932, he wrote: “Providing leadership by teachers and support of developing artists is a national duty, an insurance of spiritual solidarity, What we do for art, we do for ourselves and for our children and the future.”Hofmann, Hans. “Painting and Culture,” in ''Search for the Real and Other Essays'', ed. Sara T. Weeks and Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr., Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1967, p. 58.


Collections and art market

Hofmann's works are in the permanent collections of many major museums in the United States and throughout the world, including the: UC Berkeley Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, Art Institute of Chicago,
Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...
,
Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...
,
Museum of Fine Arts Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...
,
Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
,
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
,
Provincetown Art Association and Museum The Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) is located at 460 Commercial Street in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is the most attended art museum on Cape Cod. The museum's permanent coll ...
, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
), Museu d'Art Contemporani, (Barcelona), Tate Gallery, Art Museum of West Virginia University, and the
Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...
(Toronto). Hofmann also designed a public work, a colorful mural located outside the entrance of the
High School of Graphic Communication Arts The High School of Graphic Communication Arts (H.S.G.C.A.) is a vocational high school located in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan in New York City. Founded in 1925 as the New York School of Printing, the school is divided into five academi ...
located in the
Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the eas ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. In 2015, at a
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
New York auction, Hofmann's ''Auxerre'' (1960), inspired by the expansive stained glass windows of the Cathédrale Saint Etienne in France, achieved a world auction record for the artist at $6,325,000.


Hofmann Estate

When Hofmann died on February 17, 1966, his widow, Renate Hofmann, managed his Estate. After Renate's death in 1992, the ''
New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' published an article titled, "From Caviar to Cat Food," which detailed the "sad and tortuous story" of Hofmann's widow. The article contended that Renate's court appointed guardians "milk dthe Estate for more than a decade" and allowed the mentally unstable Renate to live "with her cats and liquor in a garbage-strewn oceanfront home." Under threat of prosecution, the original executor of the Hofmann Estate, Robert Warshaw, was successful in having the neglectful guardians pay $8.7 million to the Estate for "extraordinary conscious pain and suffering." Under the will of Renate Hofmann, The Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust was formally created with Warshaw at its head. The mission of the Trust is "to promote the study and understanding of Hans Hofmann's extraordinary life and works" and to accomplish these goals "through exhibitions, publications and educational activities and programs focusing on Hans Hofmann"Hans Hofmann.org. The Artist
Hans Hofmann.org
Retrieved June 25, 2018.
as well as a catalogue raisonné of Hofmann's paintings. The U.S. copyright representative for the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust is the
Artists Rights Society Artists Rights Society (ARS) is a copyright, licensing, and monitoring organization for visual artists in the United States. Founded in 1987, ARS is a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers and as such repre ...
.Most frequently requested artists list of the Artists Rights Society


See also

*
Abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...
* Abstract Imagists *
Art theory Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, ...
(
aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
) * Color field *
Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
*
The Irascibles The Irascibles or Irascible 18 were the labels given to a group of American abstract artists who put name to an open letter, written in 1950, to the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, rejecting the museum's exhibition ''American Painting ...
*
Western painting The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from antiquity until the present time. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with representational and Classical modes of production, after ...


References


Sources

*Chipp, Herschel B.
Theories of modern art; a source book by artists and critics
(Berkeley,
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
Press, 1968) * Greenberg, Clement. ''Hofmann'' (Paris, Editions Georges Fall, 1961). *Hofmann, Hans; Sara T Weeks; Bartlett H Hayes;
Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...

''Search for the real, and other essays''
(Cambridge, Massachusetts, M.I.T. Press, 1967)
OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
1125858 * * Tapié, Michel
''Hans Hofmann : peintures 1962 : 23 avril-18 mai 1963.''
(Paris: Galerie Anderson-Mayer, 1963.) xhibition catalogue and commentaryOCLC: 62515192 *Cynthia Goodman
''Hans Hofmann : in conjunction with the exhibition "Hans Hofmann"; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 20, 1990 – September 16, 1990; Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, November 1990 – January 1991; The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, February 1991 – April 1991''
(München : Prestel, 1990.) * Marika Herskovic
''American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,''
(New York School Press, 2003.) . pp. 166–169 * —
''New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,''
(New York School Press, 2000.) . p. 16; p. 37; pp. 182–185
''ART USA NOW''
Ed. by Lee Nordness;Vol.1, (The Viking Press, Inc., 1963. pp. 18–21


External links


The Estate of Hans HofmannHans Hofmann Biography: Tate Collection (Tate Gallery, London)Information on Hans Hofmann: Askart.comA Finding Aid to the Hans Hofmann papers, circa 1904-2011, bulk 1945-2000 in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian InstitutionHoffmann works
from the collection at the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hofmann, Hans 1880 births 1966 deaths Abstract painters People from Weißenburg in Bayern People from the Kingdom of Bavaria German emigrants to the United States Abstract expressionist artists Painters from New York City University of California, Berkeley staff Modern painters 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century American male artists German male painters Art Students League of New York faculty People from Greenwich Village People from Provincetown, Massachusetts Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters