HANS HOFMANN

"Dark ink on light paper heightens the visibility of Hofmann’s gestures, emphasizing the uniformity of line that equalizes the presence of dwellings, tractors, trees, and fences to portray a world that is rapidly defining itself through human intervention."

- Claire Frost in "In Motion: Hans Hofmann's Drawings 1929-1932"

Hans Hofmann was born in Weissenburg in Bavaria, Germany in 1880. He studied art in Munich and Paris, where he lived from 1904-14. He returned to Germany in 1914, and in 1915 he opened an art school in Munich. In 1930, Hofmann traveled to the United States, and from 1930-32 he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles. Because of the growing hostility toward intellectuals in Germany, Hofmann decided to remain in America.

In 1932, Hofmann moved to New York. He taught at the Art Students League, then opened the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in 1934.

During his lifetime, Hofmann’s work was the subject of exhibitions at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, his first exhibition in the United States (1931); the Art of This Century Gallery (1944); the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA (1948); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1957); the XXX Venice Biennale (1960); and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1963).

Hofmann’s work is in many permanent collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv; and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.

Hofmann died in 1966 in New York at the age of 85.