Edgar Hofschen

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Edgar Hofschen (born May 9, 1941 in Tapiau , East Prussia , † June 13, 2016 ) was a German painter .

Life

Edgar Hofschen was born in Tapiau, today's Gwardejsk in the Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia , in 1941, but grew up in the Bergisches Land from 1945 onwards . From 1961 to 1964 he studied education in Wuppertal and from 1965 to 1971 art history and philosophy in Cologne. In 1972 he began studying painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy , which he graduated in 1975. For a while he was an assistant in the art and didactics department of the Hagen University of Education and then became a teacher in the small town of Radevormwald near Wuppertal, where he was able to set up a studio at the same time. He lived and worked there and in the neighboring Hückeswagen until his death in 2016. He was a member of the German Association of Artists . In 1977 he took part in documenta 6 in Kassel. He is represented in the galleries Nothelfer in Berlin, Mike Karstens in Münste r.

plant

Edgar Hofschen's artistic work is attributed to analytical painting , a reductionist variant of abstract painting (in the sense of "non-representational" painting), which aims to let the material of an image, such as canvas and paint or application of paint, speak for itself without wanting to depict or express anything else. Its main representatives include Ulrich Erben , Raimund Girke and Antonio Calderara , and its heyday was in the 1970s. Hofschen's special concern was the psychophysiological effect of color and color as matter under various external conditions. He arranged his painting in individual groups of works in alphabetical order, which he called "modification". The first modifications say, for example: canvas, sewn / fields, separated / connecting order. Numbers behind the letters in the picture titles mark the position of the respective painting within the year count.

Hofschen's pictures reveal themselves to the viewer from the material used. Sometimes he also painted in oil or mixed media on paper and artist canvas, then in many cases in small formats, with economical design in mostly muted (“heavy, silent”) colors, sometimes almost monochrome. The pictorial design is often polymorphic in a way that cannot be associated, more rarely linear or geometric, and then it can be reminiscent of Antonio Calderara, Josef Albers or even Mark Rothko . The same applies to the graphic work. Hofschen's unique selling point, however, comes from the frequent use of special, coarse materials, namely canvas, coarse sackcloth and tarpaulin. These are sewn and patched or existing seams, cracks and other signs of use are used to create images, partial areas are reworked with Ponal, sanded or pasted with strips of paper, etc. Unevenness, folds and edges resulting from the fabric and its processing are welcome. The color application is based on the existing coloring and therefore prefers even more natural, calm tones. The mostly large format corresponds to the material. In this way, Hofschen succeeds in wresting forms from the bulky matter, which largely eludes subtle processing and places narrower limits on artistic design freedom, which reflect the material texture in fabric-specific or geometric structures and thus achieve an impressive pictorial effect.

Hofschen mostly signed his works with an abbreviated signature and (mostly) a hinted date, but mostly on the back, probably so as not to disturb the pictorial effect.

The renowned American minimalist Jake Berthot (1939–2014), who met Hofschen in 1974 and at times shared a preference for geometric compositions with him, named a series of five pictures in 1979 as a homage to Edgar Hofschen , which are now under this name was included in the collection of MoMA in New York.

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Schneider: Edgar Hofschen Modifications, exhibition catalog of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, 1983, page 6.
  2. ^ Rheinische Post : artist Edgar Hofschen died on June 15, 2016
  3. ↑ Galerie Art 204 Classical Modern and Contemporary Art-Edgar Hofschen ( Memento from July 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on January 19, 2015
  4. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Members "H" / Edgar Hofschen (accessed on August 30, 2015)
  5. ^ Catalog for documenta 6: Volume 1, page 90: Painting, Plastic / Environment, Performance, 1977 ISBN 3-920453-00-X
  6. ↑ http://www.galerie-nothelfer.de/kuenstler_h.html "Edgar Hofschen"
  7. ↑ http://www.mikekarstens.com/de/galerie/kuenstler "Edgar Hofschen"
  8. ↑ Klaus Honnef: The planned and analytical, fundamental and elementary painting, Kunstforum international, Volume 88, 1987.
  9. ↑ Abtart Stuttgart, curated by Prof. Klaus Honnef abtart.com/Blicken-Sehen : Anke Erlenhoff & Edgar Hofschen. Retrieved January 19, 2015
  10. ^ Klaus Honnef: Edgar Hofschen, Kunstforum international, Volume 2, 1973.
  11. ^ Susanne Thesing: Edgar Hofschen modifications, exhibition catalog Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, 1983, page 10.
  12. ^ Klaus Honnef modifications in the painting page no longer available , search in web archives: Edgar Hofschen accessed on January 19, 2015@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.zeitkunstverlag.de
  13. ^ Obituary by Roberta Smith , New York Times, January 14, 2015.
  14. ↑ Jake Berthot, Third House for Edgar Hofschen, www.moma.org/artists/529?locale=de
  15. ↑ Seeing Red. In: kunstaspekte.art. Retrieved December 10, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Hofschen, Edgar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Tapiau , East Prussia , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 2016