Hans Hofmann

Kootz Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York
By descent to the present owner from the above

New York, Kootz Gallery, Hans Hofmann: 85th Anniversary: Paintings of 1964, February - March 1965

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling along the edges and some scattered hairline craquelure in some of the areas of thick impasto, all of which appears to be stable. There are some minor dust accretions. There is a thin 1 ½ inch line of craquelure in the bottom yellow portion, to the left of the signature. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there are areas that fluoresce darkly, but appear to be the result the result of the artist's thick layering technique. Framed.
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Concerto in Colors from 1964 is a masterful example of the artist’s sensational “push-pull” synthesis of formal compositional structure and vitally energetic expressionist mark-making. The conflation of rigid forms and the exuberant application of impasto material, all infused with the sheer brilliance of vibrant color, is precisely characteristic of the very best examples of his revered and enduringly influential oeuvre and makes this a simply outstanding exemplar of his output.

When Hofmann came to the United States in 1932, he sought to create an international style that drew from a variety of sources, including the work of Wassily Kandinsky. Hofmann was enthralled by the spirituality of Kandinsky. As Sam Hunter has noted, "For Kandinsky, abstraction was a road to the individual's liberation and fulfillment…Something of the Utopian tone of uplift and high seriousness of these two great artists echoes in Hofmann's writing.” (James Yohe, ed., Hans Hofmann, New York, 2002, p. 16) Indeed, even the title of the present work, Concerto in Colors, reflects the influence of musical composition and harmony that so inspired Kandinsky.

Hofmann was a fundamentally intellectual artist, who communicated his philosophy with tremendous spirit and emotion. Nearing the end of his prolific life, with Concerto in Colors he delivered the summation of his vision, drawing together the sum of his extraordinary experience into a canvas of alluring vitality.