Untitled

In Hans Hofmann's late paintings of the 1950s and 1960s, the surfaces became denser and more tactile. While some canvases retained a flatter paint application and others focused on the arrangement of solid color rectangles, this Untitled painting is a vibrant example of Hofmann's neo-geometric compositions. The paint is applied lavishly, often directly from the tube, and manipulated by brush, spatula, or stick while still wet. The mood of Hofmann's work is expressed by the interplay of saturated colors and exuberant paint application. In a review of a 1962 Kootz Gallery exhibition, Kenneth Sawyer described Hofmann as a "technician with few peers and a colorist with none [who] proves with each successive show what a joyous and moving experience pigment on canvas can provide" (Craft Horizon, May, 1962, p. 53).