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Lot Essay
As one of the most influential painters of the twentieth century, Hans Hofmann went beyond simple aesthetics and created art with its origins in structures, abstract expression and dimensionality. Enhancement displays a great example of visual chaos and motion in Hofmann’s work. Chiefly painted with primary colors, the work depicts a dramatic field with a stormy center, slowly expanding outwards with vibrant colors. The colors are not confined into fields, nor divided into clear foregrounds, middle grounds and backgrounds. Instead, the overlapping of pigments demonstrates a constant and dynamic statement of movement. "Overlapping always produces a realistic or naturalistic effect-it is still not yet pure pictorial realization In pure plastic creation, planes are not allowed to overlap but do shift 'under them' in relation to the picture surface and this in accordance with the realization of a plastic idea" (H. Hofmann, quoted in C. Goodman, Hofmann, New York, 1986, p. 73).
Hans Hofmann achieved a free and automatic kind of non-objective painting through a technique he referred to as “push and pull.” He used rectangles of rich, pure color, large sweeping brushstrokes and aimed for spatial relationship of expansion and contraction. "Depth, in a pictorial sense," he wrote, "is not created by the arrangement of the objects one after another toward a vanishing point, in the sense of Renaissance perspective, but on the contrary by the creation of forces in the sense of push and pull" (H. Hofmann, quoted in S. Hunter, Hans Hofmann, New York, 1963, p. 14).
As a key figure of the post-war period, Hans Hofmann’s influence stretched far and wide. As a teacher, traces of his style and techniques can be seen in many of his students, including Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler. Enhancement is a striking work of Hofmann’s early career which displays his inventive skills and techniques from a primary stage.
Hans Hofmann achieved a free and automatic kind of non-objective painting through a technique he referred to as “push and pull.” He used rectangles of rich, pure color, large sweeping brushstrokes and aimed for spatial relationship of expansion and contraction. "Depth, in a pictorial sense," he wrote, "is not created by the arrangement of the objects one after another toward a vanishing point, in the sense of Renaissance perspective, but on the contrary by the creation of forces in the sense of push and pull" (H. Hofmann, quoted in S. Hunter, Hans Hofmann, New York, 1963, p. 14).
As a key figure of the post-war period, Hans Hofmann’s influence stretched far and wide. As a teacher, traces of his style and techniques can be seen in many of his students, including Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler. Enhancement is a striking work of Hofmann’s early career which displays his inventive skills and techniques from a primary stage.