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Hans Hofmann

Hans Hofmann

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  • Biography
    View works. Hans Hofmann, Untitled, c. 1949-50
    Untitled, c. 1949-50
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    Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) is one of the most important figures of postwar American art. Celebrated for his exuberant, color-filled canvases, and renowned as an influential teacher for generations of artists—first in his native Germany, then in New York and Provincetown—Hofmann played a pivotal role in the development of Abstract Expressionism.
     
    Between 1900 and 1930, Hofmann’s early studies, decades of painting, and schools of art took him to Munich, to Paris, then back to Munich. By 1933, and for the next four decades, he lived in New York and in Provincetown. Hofmann’s evolution from foremost modern art teacher to pivotal modern artist brought him into contact with many of the foremost artists, critics, and dealers of the twentieth century: Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Wassily Kandinsky, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Betty Parsons, Peggy Guggenheim, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, and many others. His successful career was shepherded by the postwar modern art dealer Sam Kootz, secured by the art historian and critic Clement Greenberg, and anchored by the professional and personal support of his first wife, Maria “Miz” Wolfegg (1885–1963).
     
    Already 64 by the time of his first solo exhibition at Art of This Century in New York in 1944, Hofmann balanced the demands of teaching and painting until he closed his school in 1956. Doing so enabled him to renew focus on his own painting at during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, and for the next twenty years, Hofmann’s voluminous output—powerfully influenced by Matisse’s use of color and Cubism’s displacement of form—developed into an artistic approach and theory he called “push and pull,” which he described as interdependent relationships between form, color, and space. From his early landscapes of the 1930s, to his “slab” paintings of the late 1950s, and his abstract works at the end of his career upon his death in 1966, Hofmann continued to create boldly experimental color combinations and formal contrasts that transcended genre and style.
     
    This biography is sourced from hanshofmann.org
  • Works
    • Lyrical abstract work on canvas
      The Lily, 1950
    • Lyrical abstract work on canvas
      Untitled, c. 1949-50
    • Lyrical abstract work on wood
      Landscape, 1940
  • Exhibitions
    • Highlights from the Ernestine and Bradley Wayne Collection

      Highlights from the Ernestine and Bradley Wayne Collection

      November 3 - December 23, 2011
      Sam Francis Helen Frankenthaler David Hockney Hans Hofmann Paul Jenkins Louise Nevelson Kenneth Noland Pablo Picasso Frank Stella Tom Wesselmann Fully-illustrated catalogue available Greenberg Van Doren Gallery is pleased to...
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    • Pre-Post

      Pre-Post

      American Abstraction 1940s - 60s October 11 - November 11, 2006
      Baziotes • Bluhm • Brooks • DeFeo • De Kooning • Diebenkorn • Francis Frankenthaler • Gorky • Guston • Held • Hofmann • Kamrowski • Krasner Mitchell • Motherwell...
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    • Tête à Tête

      Tête à Tête

      June 8 - July 8, 2005
      Group exhibition Jennifer Bartlett ~ Louise Belcourt ~ James Brooks ~ Tim Davis ~ Richard Diebenkorn Anthony Caro ~ Sharon Ellis ~ Paul Feeley ~ Mark Grotjahn ~ Wade Guyton...
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    • All American, Part II

      All American, Part II

      October 8 - November 2, 2002
      Group exhibition JENNIFER BARTLETT• WILLEM DE KOONING •RICHARD DIEBENKORN• SAM FRANCIS• HELEN FRANKENTHALER• ARSHILE GORKY• HANS HOFMANN• ELLSWORTH KELLY• FRANZ KLINE• ROBERT MOTHERWELL• GEORGIA O'KEEFFE• ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG• DOROTHEA ROCKBURNE• ED...
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    • All American

      All American

      November 14 - December 28, 2001
      Group exhibition Willem de Kooning • Richard Diebenkorn • Sam Francis • Hans Hofmann Franz Kline • Roy Lichtenstein • Robert Motherwell • Jackson Pollock Robert Rauschenberg • Frank Stella...
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    • Primed & Un-Primed

      Primed & Un-Primed

      Paintings from 60s and 70s September 9 - October 2, 1999
      Group exhibition Josef Albers Sam Francis Helen Frankenthaler Philip Guston Al Held Hans Hofmann Ellsworth Kelly Morris Louis Joan Mitchell Mark Rothko Cy Twombly Lawrence Rubin Greenberg Van Doren Fine...
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