| Artist: | Hofmann, Hans |
|
|---|---|---|
| Title: | Red and Germinating Yellow | |
| Date: | 1959 | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Context: | post WWII, NY School | |
| Movement: | Abstract Expressionism | |
| Materials: | oil paint on canvas | |
| Subject: the expression of pictorial reality, as opposed to illusionistic reality or representation; form is the content. "Paint, holy paint." Style: floating rectangular blocks of color that set up a push-pull effect in terms of space; emphasis on pictorial, optical dymanics; the geometric and the gestural; "color is form and form is color," applies paint like a sculptor; affirms the flat surface. Gets light out of color. Context: Hofmann is the link between the European avant-garde and the New York School; knew Picasso (the cubist grid) and Matisse (liberated, autonomous, non-descriptive color); Greenberg's Formalism (no illusionistic perspective or representation of a storyline; emphasis is on the purity of the medium, the flatness of the picture plane; form is the content). | ||
