HANS HOFMANN

Miles McEnery Gallery is pleased to present Hans Hofmann's Chimbote Murals.

"In 1950,  Hofmann was invited to collaborate on a series of major mural studies for a never-realized, large-scale mosaic mural project in the Peruvian city of Chimbote. The resulting "Chimbote Murals" were among the most ambitious paintings Hofmann had created to that date, and they heralded the glorious rise of his late, mature work. These paintings have not been publicly exhibited in New York since they were shown at the André Emmerich Gallery from 20 December 1990 to 26 January 1991. It is with equal parts honor and joy we present these nine paintings almost 31 years to the day since they were last exhibited in New York, in an effort to expand the appreciation and understanding of the development of this extraordinary artist’s work for future generations." - Miles McEnery

"At his finest, Hans Hofmann is about letting go—albeit the letting go is tinctured, as it were, with a certain discipline. A late title catches the precarious equilibrium. In the Chimbote nexus, we can see both the dualisms and their burgeoning dialectic... Hofmann noted in his veritable manifesto, "The Search for the Real" (1948), that the most important carriers of push and pull were planes; other carriers included lines and points. Hofmann’s core agenda for sunny Chimbote was moving into other realms,

the abstract dualities of color and spirit that henceforth became the linchpins cementing his ultimate radiant achievements."

- Dr. David Anfam, "Plane Perfection"

"Hofmann was about to turn seventy, when, that winter, Elaine de Kooning interviewed him for a spread in "Art News." She watched him work "with astonishing speed, never sitting down, constantly in motion, between his palette and his easel, applying his paint with broad brushtrokes, lunging gestures," often finishing a painting in a few hours. With such a forceful exploration of archetypal imagery, Hofmann would embark on a series of mural studies for a bell tower and plaza in Chimbote, Peru." 

- Color Creates Light: Studies with Hans Hofmann by Tina Dickey 

"I want to invent, to discover, to imagine, to speculate, to improvise—to sieze the hazardous in order to be inspired. I want to experience the manifestation of the absolute—the manifestation of the unexpected in an extreme and unique relation."

- Hans Hofmann

"Hofmann believed profoundly that the execution of a mosaic required more than simply rendering a sketch and then allowing craftsmen to translate it mechanically. For Hofmann the difference in, and the transfer of, the material character of his work meant risking a loss of nuance as well as a change in the properties of the substance that was too great for him to accept. Therefore, for this commission, he painted a series of large panels one-half the size for the intended murals. It was Hofmann's plan to arrange the separate images into mosaic composition which would cover one entire side of the bell tower. Although the Chimbote city project never came to fruition, we have happily been left with Hofmann's suite of paintings. They stand on their own as vibrant, important examples of the artist's mature vision and art in his 70th year." 

- Hans Hofmann the 1950 Chimbote Mural Project

"A good easel painting has the faculty of assimilation with any environment. But the mural painting must predominantly serve an architectural purpose – it must not contradict the architectural idea. A mural qualifies not through the "what" is said, but only through the "how" it is said. The communication must be stated in plastic terms – not in literary terms." 

- Hans Hofmann in Color Creates Light by Tina Dickey