Accession Number
1997/1.125

Title
Untitled

Artist(s)
Hans Hofmann

Object Creation Date
circa 1962

Medium & Support
oil on canvas board

Dimensions
8 13/16 in x 13 5/8 in (22.38 cm x 34.61 cm);19 1/2 in x 15 3/4 in x 2 in (49.53 cm x 40.01 cm x 5.08 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family

Label copy
Both an educator and artist, Hans Hofmann was always an innovator. He established an important school in Munich in 1915 and, after teaching at universities in Berkeley and Los Angeles, Hofmann relocated to New York and opened a school there in 1933. He is perhaps best known for employing the phrase "push and pull" to signify the simultaneous operation of flatness and depth in paintings. His recognizable imagery of landscapes and still lifes of the 1930s gave way in the 40s to abstractions based on the rhythm of nature. It was in 1940 that he became the first artist known to drip paint on his canvases, a technique exploited in 1947 by Jackson Pollock. Hoffmann closed his school in 1958 to devote himself entirely to art making but not before influencing several generations of artists, including such major figures as Helen Frankenthaler, Louise Nevelson, Lee Krasner, and Lester Johnson.
Hofmann felt that his abstracted compositions expressed the spiritual dimensions of nature and the landscapes he often used as a point of departure.
Sean M. Ulmer, University Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, on the occasion of the exhibition The New York School: Abstract Expressionism and Beyond, July 20, 2002 – January 19, 2003

Both an important educator and artist, Hans Hofmann was always an innovator. He established an important school in Munich in 1915 and after teaching at both Berkeley and Los Angeles, Hofmann relocated to New York and opened a school there in 1933. He is perhaps best known for employing the phrase "push and pull" to signify the simultaneous operation of flatness and depth in paintings. His recognizable imagery of landscapes and still lifes of the 1930s gave way in the 1940s to abstractions based on the rhythm of nature. It was in 1940 that he became the first artist known to drip paint on his canvases, a technique exploited in 1947 by Jackson Pollock. He closed his school in 1958 to devote himself entirely to his art but not before influencing several generations of artists including such major figures as Helen Frankenthaler, Louise Nevelson, Lee Krasner, and Lester Johnson.
Hofmann felt that his abstracted compositions were still very much related to the nature and landscapes he often used as a point of departure. In a work such as Untitled, Hofmann represented the soft winds or crash of storms experienced in the landscape. Seeking to represent the spiritual side of nature, Hofmann never departed far from nature as his source.
Sean M. Ulmer, University Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, for "A Matter of Degree: Abstraction in Twentieth-Century Art," November 10, 2001-January 27, 2002

Subject matter
In “Untitled,” Hofmann’s use of shapes, colors, lines, and space echoes nature, producing a new type of landscape; one that is composed, not of trees and land, but of the balance and tension between form, vibrating colors and energetic brushwork.

Physical Description
Abstract painting dominated by brushstrokes in vivid yellows on white background with light blues in center and left side of canvas, large area of light brown in upper right and lower left, and brushstrokes in dark red in left center of canvas. Signed “hans hofmann” in lower right.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
abstract

Additional Object Classification(s)
Painting

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
Abstract (fine arts style)
abstraction
modern and contemporary art