Hans Hofmann catalog

HANS HOFMANN

A selection of paintings from Sublime Abstraction Organized by Heather James Fine Art Palm Desert, California November 25, 2017 – May 31, 2018

HANS HOFMANN

The German-born American painter Hans Hofmann is one of the first artists to have emerged from the artistic tidal wave now known as Abstract Expressionism.

This movement, which began in New York City in the 1940s, took a distinctly personal approach to painting unparalleled by earlier artistic movements. As the art historian Irving Sandler has noted, it was Abstract Expressionists who “turned to their own private visions and insights in an anxious search for new values” through the visual language of abstraction.

Among other artists from this era, Hofmann stands apart from his artistic colleagues in several respects. Hofmann’s earliest abstractions date to the early 1930s, a time when artists like Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock were still painting in representational and figurative styles. Over the course of his long career, Hofmann was highly prolific, yet he never developed a single iconic style of abstract painting like many of his colleagues. However, his “slab” paintings are among the most sought-after examples of his work, composed of blocks of saturated color that seem to rest upon the surface of the canvas.

Though Hofmann is a highly renowned artist in his own right, he is remembered for the contributions that he made as an art teacher in both New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and Larry Rivers are a handful among hundreds of artists who thrived under his influence and tutelage. Hofmann also wrote extensively about art, developing a theory he referred to as push and pull. This related to Hofmann’s belief that abstract painting was about finding a harmonious relationship between form, color, and space in order to translate the three-dimensional experience of life onto a two-dimensional surface.

We hope you enjoy this selection of paintings by Hans Hofmann, currently on view in Sublime Abstraction at Heather James Fine Art in Palm Desert, California.

Hayden Hunt Assistant Curator

Up the Dune 1940 oil on board 20 x 24 in.

The transformative nature of the sublime landscape did not escape the interest of Abstract Expressionist painters, who readily adopted the subject while imbuing it with a contemporary aesthetic sensibility.

Up the Dune by Hans Hofmann is a multicolor abstraction ranging in hue from fiery yellows and reds to luscious shades of green and blue. Hofmann’s brushstrokes imply a sense of upward movement and turbulence within the work that call to mind the upswept stormy skies found in J.M.W. Turner’s seascapes.

With its meandering composition punctuated with abstract linear forms, Hofmann conjures up a landscape that is anything but serene; yet, it is through this abstract perspective that the chaotic forces of nature become truly manifest, and we as viewers experience them in light of their sublime potential.

Provenance: Estate of the Artist (1966-1976) André Emmerich Gallery, New York (1976) Private Collection, NC (acquired 1976) Literature: Suzi Villiger, Ed., Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume II: 1901-1951, London 2014, cat.

No. P303, p. 180, illustrated in color HH cat. no. 431-1940 Estate no. M-0903

Untitled 1945 gouache on paper 18 1/2 x 24 in.

Hans Hofmann’s Untitled is populated by whiplash lines of red and blue paint scattered throughout the composition that appear like organisms under a microscope. Splashes of transparent, washy paint underlie the work’s composition, giving it an ethereal glow.

Untitled exemplifies the whimsical nature of his works on paper, which is mirrored by his many paintings on canvas and panel. Hofmann was prolific in both forms of painting, though each medium illustrates his skills in different types of abstraction Provenance: André Emmerich Gallery Marianne Friedland Gallery, Ontario, Canada Private Collection, NC (acquired from the above) Estate No. M-495

Nocturne 1950 oil on panel 19 3/4 x 16 in.

Nocturne is a thickly painted work on panel from 1950 that features both swaths of thoroughly-mixed paint, as well as areas where undiluted pigment glows radiantly amidst a cacophony of coloration. As Frank Stella eloquently recalled, “Hofmann’s ability to handle paint, to fuse the action of painting and drawing into a single, immediate gesture, carried colored pigment into the viewer’s presence with the force of a bomb.”

Though the work’s title Nocturne calls to mind the serene images of twilight painted

by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Hofmann here has infused nighttime with ecstatic energy ready to break free from the boundaries of the painting panel.

Provenance: Kootz Gallery, New York (1950) Collection of William Hayden, New York (1950-1980) Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York (1980) Private Collection (1980-2003) Sotheby’s New York (13 November 2003, sale 7940, lot 170) Private Collection, Washington D.C. (acquired from the above) Exhibition: New York City, Kootz Gallery, Hans Hofmann: New Paintings, October 24 - November 13, 1950 New York City, Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, 20th Century Paintings, October 3 - November 3, 1979, color cover illustration Literature: Hunter, Sam. Hans Hofmann. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1963. Illustrated, pl. 33.

Murray, Jesse. “Hans Hofmann’s Use of Nature as Aesthetic Norm.” Arts Magazine 55, no. 6 (February 1981), pg. 105-109. Commentary pg. 108.

Hans Hofmann: Esseitä. Essays by Katharine Kuh, Jesse Murry, and Ellen Landau. Helsinki: Vapaa Taidekoulu, 1983. Commentary pg. 22.

Suzi Villiger, Ed., Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume II: 1901-1951, London 2014, cat.

No. P773, p. 473, illustrated in color HH cat. no. 1154-1950

Evening 1958
 oil on panel 17 3/4 x 16 in.

Evening features energetic brushstrokes that evoke the feeling of early evening before we are plunged into the darkness of night. Immanuel Kant specifically described the sublime connotations of this moment, writing: Temperaments that possess a feeling of the sublime are drawn gradually, by the quiet stillness of a summer evening as the shimmering light of the star breaks through the brown shadows of night and the lonely moon rises into view, into high feelings of friendship, of disdain of the world, of eternity.

Nighttime provides us with opportunities for introspection, allowing us the opportunity to contemplate that which is beyond the limits of understanding and, consequently, sublime.

Provenance: Mona Aarons (1959-1988) Private Collection (by descent from the above) Literature: Suzi Villiger, Ed., Hans Hofmann Catalogue RaisonnĂŠ of Paintings, Volume III: 1952-1965, London 2014, cat.

No. P1097, p. 162, illustrated in color HH cat. no. 470-1940

Falling Darkness 1959 oil on panel 10 3/4 x 12 3/4 in.

Three abstractions by Hans Hofmann – Nocturne (1950), Evening (1958), and Falling Darkness (1959) – were selected for the Sublime Abstraction exhibition because of their association with nighttime and darkness. Falling Darkness is thickly painted and features an earthy palette that contrasts with the rich blue colors of Evening, painted only one year prior.

Kant unequivocally describes nighttime as sublime, writing that while shining light “stimulates busy fervor and a feeling of gaiety,” it is darkness which brings a sense of calm and, sometimes, an air of mystery, or fear of the unknown.

Provenance: Mona Aarons (1959-1988) Private Collection (by descent from the above) Literature: Suzi Villiger, Ed., Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume III: 1952-1965, London 2014, cat.

No. P1148, p. 194, illustrated in color HH cat. no. 908-1959

Improvisation No. II 1959 oil on board 12 x 16 in.

With its lush and vibrant colors, Hofmann’s abstraction Improvisation No. II calls to mind an abstract landscape. Though the expressive colors are not those that we might find in nature, they evoke exciting sensory impressions.

Hofmann has seemingly titled this work in reference to Kandinsky’s series of abstractions, known as Improvisations, which were created beginning in the first few decades of the twentieth century. In these works, Kandinsky described the paintings as being inspired by “events of the spiritual type” that informed his approach to each individual painting. His intensified colors offer a psychological weight to each work, making their final aesthetic the product of his mind and feelings.

Provenance: Mona Aarons (1959-1988) Private Collection (by descent from the above) Literature: Suzi Villiger, Ed., Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume III: 1952-1965, London 2014, cat.

No. P1139, p. 190, illustrated in color HH cat. no. 907-1959

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