Hans Hofmann: Magnum Opus
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Hans Hofmann: Magnum Opus Details
A pioneering artist, influential teacher and a crucial catalyst for Abstract Expressionism in New York, Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) is one of the most important abstract painters of the twentieth century. Following stints in Munich, Paris (where he befriended Picasso, Braque, Gris and Robert Delaunay), Hofmann established himself in the United States in 1932, setting up art schools in New York and Provincetown, where, over the next 40 years, his pedagogy was to significantly influence three generations of postwar American artists, among them Helen Frankenthaler, Red Grooms, Alfred Jensen, Lee Krasner, Louise Nevelson and Frank Stella. Hofmann’s painting, with its loose accumulations of brushstrokes and energetic tensions of rectangles, also proved a galvanizing precedent for Pollock, de Kooning, Motherwell and Newman. This publication surveys Hofmann’s life and work in all of its rich dimensionality, from his painting to his theoretical writings.
Reviews
While the catalogue has some useful essays (in both english and german) and the exhibit seems like an important showing for Hoffman in Germany. The reproductions did not seem to give an extensive overview of his work like other catalogues. This being said I received this catalogue at a very good price (around $25) and this to some degree effects my review in a more positive way. If I paid much more I might be disappointed.
