Hans Hofmann (painter)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johann (Hans) Georg Albert Hofmann (born March 21, 1880 in Weissenburg in Bavaria , † February 17, 1966 in New York ) was a German - American painter , teacher and art professor , who in his early works a synthesis of Fauvism and Aspired to cubism . After emigrating to the United States , he founded an art school in New York that had a great influence on the development of Abstract Expressionism . Hofmann is considered to be the first generation artist of the so-called New York School .

life and work

When Hans Hofmann was six years old, his family moved from Weißenburg to Munich . The mathematically and musically gifted child, who felt strongly drawn to nature, began to draw. At the age of 16, Hans Hofmann left school and became assistant to the head of the public building authority of the Bavarian state. His keen interest in mathematics and science was also reflected in the fact that he designed a calculating machine and a radar device for ships. In 1898 he enrolled in Moritz Heymann's art school in Munich. He later studied with Anton Ažbe . Willy Schwarz brought him closer to impressionism and suggested him for a stay in France because of his talent. In 1904 he was able to go to Paris thanks to the support of the businessman Philipp Freudenberg .

Maria (Miz) Wolfegg came later and lived with him in Paris for ten years . In Paris he frequented the Café du Dôme , an artist bar of the French avant-garde. Here he was influenced by Robert Delaunay and his wife Sonia Delaunay-Terk , and he began to develop his own theories about colors and composition that preoccupied him for a lifetime. In 1908 and 1909 he exhibited his works in Berlin . Then he went on a recovery trip with his wife Miz to Corsica to recover from tuberculosis. Meanwhile the First World War broke out and he could not return to Paris as a German citizen. His lung disease saved him from military service. The outbreak of war also prevented the return to Paris. So he stayed in Munich, where he founded his Hans Hofmann School for Fine Arts in 1915 , this school is considered one of the first schools for modern art.

After the end of the First World War, his school was attended by many foreign students because on the one hand it was recognized by the state, but on the other hand it did not have the restrictions that applied to foreigners. For example, it was forbidden to attend a German university as a foreigner after the age of 35. In the first few years only a few students attended school.

Summer courses initially took place in the Bavarian foothills of the Alps:

later also in the Mediterranean area:

In the winter of 1920/21 two US war veterans, the painters Ernest Thurn (1884–1971) and Vaclav Vytlacil (1892–1984), discovered Hofmann's school. They brought more and more American art teachers to Hofmann's school, especially for the summer courses in Capri and St. Tropez. By 1928 the school had grown to be an international success, drawing students from Sweden, China, Finland, Russia, England, Italy, France, Turkey and Czechoslovakia. The high proportion of foreigners and their exchanges shaped the work of German and foreign students even years later. Some of the better-known artists of the time were Josef Hendel , Carl Holty , Alfred Jensen , Alf Bayrle , Arnold Fiedler , Erwin Hinrichs and Worth Ryder . The latter invited him in 1930 to a lecture at the University of California at Berkeley . The longstanding relationship with the university later prompted him to donate 45 paintings to the university on condition that he build an art museum.

Hofmann spent summers lecturing in the USA until he settled in New York in 1932, as the Nazis intensified the climate for intellectuals and his art was described as degenerate . A year later he founded his second school on 8th Street in Manhattan, where he taught his students what he had learned in Europe from Picasso , Braque , Matisse and Delaunay .

It was not until the age of 64 that he had his first solo exhibition in New York with Peggy Guggenheim in her gallery Art of This Century . Further exhibitions followed. From 1947 to 1966 he exhibited every year at the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery in Manhattan . It was only at the age of 78 that he was able to give up his job as a teacher in order to devote himself entirely to art. A generation older than Jackson Pollock , Arshile Gorky , Clyfford Still and Willem de Kooning , he developed his own variety of American abstract expressionism . In 1959, Hans Hofmann took part in documenta II in Kassel , and in 1963 the Museum of Modern Art in New York honored him with a large solo exhibition.

In 1960 he was one of four artists who the United States at the Biennale in Venice represented. His wife Miz died three years later. In 1965 Hofmann married a young German, Renate, who was his new muse for other works that can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art . One year later, in 1966, Hofmann died. He could no longer complete an almost finished painting by his wife Renate.

In 1961 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

meaning

Hofmann's “… ability to translate traditional elements of painting into the context of modern art attracted art teachers from across the continent and had a formative influence on North American art education. Hofmann, who taught five generations of painters, introduced modern European art to America. He became a catalyst for the art movement of Abstract Expressionism and is today one of the most influential art educators of the 20th century. "

student

  • Jane Freilicher
  • Jean Follett
  • Joe Stefanelli
  • John Grillo
  • John Haley
  • Julius Hatofsky
  • Karl Kasten
  • Korl Meyer
  • Larry Rivers
  • Lee Krasner
  • Linda Lindeberg
  • Louise Nevelson
  • Ludwig Sander
  • Ludwig Weninger
  • Mary Frank
  • Mercedes Matter
  • Michael Goldberg
  • Michael Growe
  • Michael Loew
  • Miles Forst
  • Myron Stout
  • Nell Blaine
  • Nicolas Carone
  • Paul Georges
  • Paul Harris
  • Pearl fine
  • Richard Stankiewicz
  • Robert Beauchamp
  • Robert De Niro, senior
  • Robert Goodnough
  • Robert Richenburg
  • Ray Eames
  • Stephen Pace
  • Teruko Yokoi
  • Vaclav Vytlacil
  • Wilfred Zogbaum
  • William Freed
  • Wolf Kahn
  • Worth Ryder

Exhibitions

  • 1950: Marcel Breuer and Hans Hofmann: The Muralist and the Architect , Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, Madison Avenue , Manhattan, New York City, USA.
  • 9th Street Art Exhibition also known as 9th St. Show or Ninth Street Show , New York City, USA
  • 1962 Hans Hofmann, New York, born in Weißenburg in 1880 , Frankische Galerie am Marientor, Nuremberg
  • 1980 Hans Hofmann, Works on Paper , Pace / Columbus, Ohio, USA.
  • 1997: “Miracle of the rhythm and beauty of space - Hans Hofmann”, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt , Frankfurt am Main
  • 2004: "Carl Heidenreich and Hans Hofmann in Postwar New York", Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA 2009: "Hans Hofmann: Circa 1950" , Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
  • 2013: Magnum Opus - Hans Hofmann , Museum Pfalzgalerie , Kaiserslautern .
  • October 2013: The painting Red Parabel is acquired by the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt
  • 2016: Creation in form and color : Hans Hofmann 05 11 16 05 03 17, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld

literature

  • Marcel Breuer and Hans Hofman: The Muralist and the Architect , Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, Manhattan 1950.
  • Jürgen Claus: "Hans Hofmann", in: Jürgen Claus, "Theories of contemporary painting", Rowohlt Verlag 1963
  • William C. Seitz: Hans Hofmann . Museum of Modern Art, New York 1963 (exhibition catalog).
  • Hans Hofmann (Editor), Sara T. Weeks (Editor), Bartlett H. Hayes (Editor): Search for the Real and Other Essays , The MIT Press; Revised edition, 1967, ISBN 978-0262580083
  • Hans Hofmann. Sam Hunter, Rizzoli; Expanded edition 2006, ISBN 978-0847823802
  • Hans Hofmann. Magnum Opus , Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2013, ISBN 978-3-7757-3535-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annette Gautherie-Kampka, Hans Hofmann, in WELTKUNST issue 13 p. 1522ff
  2. ↑ a b [1] , from January 16, 2012: Tina Dickey, Hans Hofmann: School for fine arts, in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
  3. ^ Jochen Arntz: Broadway, corner of Georgenstrasse . Süddeutsche Zeitung from 16./17. April 2001, p. 3.
  4. ^ Members: Hans Hofmann. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 4, 2019 .
  5. ↑ http://blog.staedelmuseum.de/gegenwartskunst/neu-im-stadel-das-gemalde-red-parabel-von-hans-hofmann "

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hofmann, Hans Georg Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American painter
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Weißenburg in Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH 17th February 1966
Place of death New York City