In the exhibit, Hans Hofmann: Drawings 1934-1951, Hofmann is represented by lesser works that nonetheless typify the artist’s contributions to art history. Born in Germany in 1880, the artist and teacher played an important role in the development of Abstract Expressionist painting and became one of the most important figures in the history of postwar American art. A number of his drawings from the late 1940s prefigure the 1960s movement known as Color Field painting.
Among all the Hofmann drawings, “Untitled,” circa 1949, contains some of the same vivacious color and violently animated composition that we find in Snyder’s paintings. A hot pink bulb is jammed up against a plank of blue, almost totally surrounded by a field of black ink.
Hans Hofman: Drawings will be on display at the Carl Solway Gallery Monday-Saturday until April 18. Get more information about the gallery’s exhibits here.
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2009.