

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.