German
b. 1880, Weissenburg, Bayern, Germany —
d. 1966, New York, New York

Hans Hofmann was a renowned painter and famous teacher of many prominent American artists. He believed fervently that a modern artist must remain faithful to the flatness of the canvas support. To suggest depth and movement in the picture — to create what he called push and pull in the image — artists should create contrasts of color, form, and texture.

Nature was the origin of art, Hofmann believed, and no matter how abstract his pictures seemed to become, he always sought to maintain in them a link to the world of objects. Even when his canvases seemed to be only collections of forms and colors, Hofmann argued that they still contained the suggestion of movement — and movement was the pulse of nature.

Emigrating to the United States during the increasingly oppressive regime in Germany, Hofmann later opened his own school to teach many of the renown painters of the 1950s and 1960s. He was as well known for his painting as for his teaching, and gained recognition as a leading member of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

Hans Hofmann paintings are held in the collections of most of the world’s most prestigious art museums.