Hans Hofmann: Circa 1950
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Hans Hofmann: Circa 1950 Details
Celebrated for his exuberant, color-packed canvases, and legendarily influential as a teacher to several generations of artists―first in his native Germany, then in New York and Provincetown―Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) looms large indeed over postwar American painting. Circa 1950 accompanies The Rose Art Museum's examination of the nine studies for murals that Hofmann produced for the Chimbote Project, architect Josep Sert's 1950 Peruvian urban planning project. These works show Hofmann hitting an apex in his art: his canvasses spill over with gloriously messy energy, and palpable physicality, as they riff on strong, anchoring, circular, angular and cruciform forms. This full-color catalogue embellishes images from the project with essays by curators Michael Rush and Catherine Morris, and renowned critic Irving Sandler.
Reviews
In 1950 when Hans Hofmann was 70, he was indeed very active. He began a project with architect Joseph Sert to design murals for the imagined rebuilding of the Peruvian city of Chimbote along with all his numerous activities as an artist. This beautiful book which accompanied the exhibit at the Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University in January-April 2009 illustrates the project with remarkable color and detail. The essays by Michael Rush, Catherine Morris and Irving Sandler are excellent.This is a book to savor... with wonderful, exuberant color reproductions. It seems to energize the viewer. Hans Hofmann's work has always been reflective of his love of color and experimentation and this is captured in this catalogue.