Hans Hofmann
(1880-1966)

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Hans Hofmann was a German-American abstract expressionist painter. Hofmann was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria and immigrated to the United States in 1932. Hofmann was well known as a teaching artist in both, both Germany and the U.S. Hofmann founded a school in Munich, where Louise Nevelson, Wolfgang Paalen, Worth Rider and Alfred Jensen studied. The school was open until 1932, the year Hofmann immigrated to the U.S.

In the United States, Hofmann settled in California, where he was hired to teach at the University of California in Berkeley and Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. Hofmann returned to Germany for a brief amount of time, before his big move to New York City. Hofmann was hired to teach at the Art Students League, which exposed him the artist community of New York.

Eventually, Hofmann opened his own schools in New York and Massachusetts. Many of Hofmann’s students became big names in the art world, including Joan Mitchell, Michael Goldberg, Lee Krasner and Wolf Kahn. Despite Hofmann’s reputation as an excellent teacher, he decided to solely concentrate on his own work after 1958.

Hofmann also wrote extensively about his artistic theories and philosophies. One of his essays, “Search for the Real” is highly regarded by art critics and theorists. Hofmann’s theories on color and line are easily seen in his abstract expressionist paintings.

According to the Hofmann biography, Hofmann's work is distinguished by "a rigorous concern with pictorial structure, spatial illusion, and color relationships." Other information on Hofmann states that his "completely abstract works date from the 1940s." Hofmann believed that abstract art was a way to get at what was really important. He famously stated that "the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

The paintings of Hofmann are now in major collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Städtische Galerie in Munich, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, and the Tate Gallery in London. Do you think you own a painting by Hans Hofmann? Contact us. We are the experts on Hans Hofmann.