Hans Hofmann
THE CLIMB, 1960
Available at Surovek Gallery
As an artist and teacher, Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) had a profound effect on art in America.
Hofmann was born in Bavaria and showed a penchant for science, mathematics, music and literature at an early age. Hofmann worked for the Director of Public Works of the State of Bavaria, where he patented several scientific inventions, including a radar device for ships, while still in his teenage years.
He began to study art in Munich when he was eighteen. He was so talented that a patron supported him while he studied in Paris. Hofmann stayed in Paris for ten years, and returned to Munich in 1914, when war broke out and he was unable to return to Paris. He opened an art school in Munich that became well-known internationally.
In 1930 Hofmann was invited to teach a summer session at UC Berkeley. He made several more trips to the States and, because of the chaos in Europe, he decided to stay in America. He settled in New York, taught at the Art Students League and opened the Hans Hoffman School of Fine Arts in 1933 and a summer school in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1935.
Hofmann’s teaching was very formal, very rigid. "The concepts of my school are fundamental. But a true artist could violate them all.” he said.
Among his best-known students were Wolf Kahn, Richard Stankiewicz, Robert De Niro, Sr., Lee Krasner, Red Grooms, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Nicholas Carone, Allan Kaprow and Larry Rivers.
Wolf Kahn (1927-2020) not only studied with Hofmann, he also worked as his studio assistant. Kahn was born in Germany and emigrated to the U.S. when he was thirteen. Kahn was able to translate for Hofmann, whose English was limited. Kahn combined Realism and Color Field techniques in his lush landscape paintings of his summer home in Vermont. He lived and worked in New York during the rest of the year, where he completed most of his works. Wolf Kahn was awarded the Medal of Art for his longtime contributions to Art in Embassies and cultural diplomacy on January 12, 2017.
Nicholas Carone (1917-2010) studied at the Hans Hofmann School and the Art Students League. He was a good friend of Jackson Pollock’s. Carone was a founding faculty member of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, where he taught for 25 years.
In 1958, after spending 58 years as a teacher, Hofmann decided to leave teaching for good and focus his all of his efforts on painting. Both his New York and Provincetown schools were converted into studio spaces.
Hofmann opened the door to Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, Post-Painterly Abstraction and Nouveau Réalisme for his students and for the many others who came after them.
Milton Avery (1885-1965) was just a few years younger than Hans Hofmann, but had a later start as an artist because he was the sole support of his mother and sisters after his father’s death. He was born in upstate New York and moved to New York City to pursue his career as an artist when he was 40. He married artist Sally Michel, who encouraged him to take night classes at the Art Students League.
Avery used color and form to create vivd figurative and landscape paintings. They were not the abstract expressionist works that were the focus of many New York artists and critics, but Avery’s style influenced many of the artists who found themselves frequent visitors at the Avery’s apartment.
Among those who sought Avery’s friendship and counsel were Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974) and Gottlieb’s wife, Esther. The Averys, the Gottliebs and Rothko took vacations together to paint in Massachusetts and Vermont.
Gottlieb, a New Yorker, traveled to Paris and around Europe for a year when he was just seventeen. With no passport and little money he worked aboard a ship to pursue his passion for art. The works he saw there inspired him to create abstract expressionist work that was not always embraced by American critics and public.
Gottlieb and Rothko were staunch advocates of abstract expressionism and of the right of artists to be treated with dignity and respect. In 1943, Gottlieb and Rothko sent a letter to The New York Times, explaining their thoughts about Abstract Expressionism. “We favor the simple expression o complex thought.’ they wrote. “We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.”
These artists, who lived through war, the Depression and political chaos, were able to express themselves through their work and experience positive forward movement in both art and society.
Please contact us if you would like more information about the work of Hans Hofmann, Wolf Kahn, Nicolas Carone, Milton Avery and Adolph Gottlieb available at Surovek Gallery.
