From Library Journal
Hoffman came to the United States in 1932. His style, influenced by the Fauves, Cubism, and Expressionism, was not fully abstract until the late 1930s. He had his own school of art in Munich, and his leadership of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism had much to do with his teaching in New York City and Provincetown. He is described as painting with gusto, but teaching with "coolness, precision, and objectivity." Vibrant color and rich texture are hallmarks of his work, illustrated here by many color plates. There are also interesting photographs of the middle-aged Hoffman. Goodman is currently organizing a Hofmann retrospective; she does a fair job of explaining his aesthetics to the layperson. For large general collections and art libraries. Hara L. Seltzer, NYPLCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Hans Hofmann's brilliance as a teacher to generations of American artists has tended to overshadow his equally brilliant accomplishments as a painter. Cynthia Goodman provides an insightful evaluation of Hofmann's two careers and makes strikingly clear the beauty and originality of his work.

As a young man in Paris, Hofmann participated in the artistic revolutions before World War I, than ran an influential art school in Germany between the wars. He came to America in 1930 and established schools in New York and Provincetown that has had a profound impact on the development of American art. By presenting his life's work, from the rare landscapes and portraits of his early years to the majestic late abstractions, this vibrantly colorful book establishes Hofmann's major contribution to the art of this century.

About the Modern Masters series:

With infomative, enjoyable texts and over 100 illustrations—approximately 48 in full color—this innovative series offers a fresh look at the most creative and influential artists of the postwar era. The authors are highly respected art historians and critics chosen for their ability to think clearly and write well. Each handsomely designed volume presents a thorough survey of the artist's life and work, as well as statements by the artist, an illustrated chapter on technique, a chronology, lists of exhibitions and public collections, an annotated bibliography, and an index. Every art lover, from the casual museumgoer to the serious student, teacher, critic, or curator, will be eager to collect these Modern Masters. And with such a low price, they can afford to collect them all.

Other Details: 115 or moreillustrations, approximately 48 in full color 128 pages 8 1/2 x 8 1/2" Published 1991

Greenberg also mentioned that he personally owed "more to the illumination received from Hofmann's lectures than from any other source" and that he found "the same quality in Hofmann's painting [as] in his words—both are completely relevant." This review, however positive, again demonstrates how inextricably Hofmann's two careers were intertwined. Hofmann would struggle with the problems of his dual career for many more years, continuing to teach as well as to exhibit almost yearly until 1958, when at the age of seventy-eight he finally gave up teaching to devote himself to painting full-time.

It was not only his reputation as a teacher that impeded Hofmann's acceptance as a major painter. Hofmann obdurately resisted being identified with any one movement or style. His career was distinguished by his unusual ability to explore simultaneously what might be considered irreconcilable forms of expression. Yet this stylistic range was intrinsic to his way of working. Hofmann confided to Sam Kootz, his friend and dealer of many years, "If I ever find a style, I'll stop painting." Unfortunately, many mistook this diversity, which was central to Hofmann's creativity, as either indecision or artistic immaturity, a misunderstanding that obscured his artistic prowess. Although critics Thomas B. Hess and Harold Rosenberg became staunch Hofmann fans in the mid-1950s, it took Hofmann a long time to win their support and that of others such as painter and critic Walter Darby Bannard, who defended his stylistic plurality with the assertion that "it's the picture that is obliged to be consistent, not the artist." Greenberg partially blamed the art-viewing public for not accepting the work of any artist who went beyond one easily identifiable style, but he did concede that "the variety of manners and even of styles in which [Hofmann] works would conspire to deprive even the most sympathetic public of a clear idea of his achievement."

Some were put off by Hofmann's European mannerisms and by the occasional pomposity of his philosophical discussions, which were comprehensible only to those already well versed in his ideas. Yet Hofmann's theorizing was offset by his warm conviviality, expansiveness, and keen sense of humor. As a teacher, Hofmann fostered an infectious camaraderie, and he expressed a benign paternalism toward the dozens of students who became close to him. His magnanimous personality and unswerving conviction that art was essential to humanity inspired many of those who studied with him. Larry Rivers recalls that when Hofmann "came around to look at the work he was relaxed enough to beef up the timid hearts, and pompous, blustering, egocentric enough to make every fiber of the delusions of grandeur puff and puff and puff up until you saw your name in the long line from Michelangelo to Matisse . . . to Hofmann himself."

Hofmann had a profound impact on American art. Over half the charter members of the American Abstract Artists organization, founded in 1937, had been his students. Most major artists of the second-generation New York School—including Nell Blaine, Robert DeNiro, Helen Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Michael Goldberg, Wolf Kahn, and Larry Rivers—attended Hofmann's classes, and he influenced many of the first generation as well, although less directly. Yet Hofmann's influence is far from being limited to New York. In art centers from coast to coast such as Provincetown, Minneapolis, and Berkeley, wherever his former students have settled, Hofmann's teaching is continued. In Berkeley, the presence of forty-nine paintings in the University Art Museum collection has exerted a major force on many artists who never studied directly with him. Hofmann's most important legacy resides in his remarkable ability to be provocative stylistically and philosophically decade after decade. During the 1950s Hofmann's animated surfaces directed many artists to the exploration of texture. His longtime interest in using large areas of intensely saturated color proved seminal for color-field painting, a connection that may have contributed to the revival of Hofmann's reputation throughout the 1960s. Today, with the current infatuation with expressionism and the consequent attraction to heavily encrusted surfaces, as well as the cultivation of pluralism and the idiosyncratic in art, Hofmann's canvases have assumed a renewed relevance.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal