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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné, sponsored by the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust.
In Setting Sun Hans Hofmann uses jewel-toned hues to clarify the thick impasto paint, and creates a dynamic surface that finds its own rhythm and order through its arrangement of color. In 1957, the penultimate year of his legendary teaching career, Hofmann refines his stylistic approach, distilling his freely painted compositions into more structured arrangements of rich colors and abstract shapes. Set on a grand scale, Setting Sun illustrates the artist's decisive move towards the planar, geometric style for which he would become known. As its title suggests, the picture is centered on a brilliantly painted red orb throwing its orange light over a verdant landscape below. Hofmann shows his sensitivity to tonal proportion and color pairing when he amplifies the intensity of his atmospheric oranges and reds by placing them alongside their contrasting greens and blues with splashes of yellow and white highlights. The artist paints large areas of green with deep red holding the center, while placing vibrant orange and yellow toward the edge. Finally, he punctuates the large spaces of color with small swatches of bright yellow and blue, which resemble water, plants, or flowers illuminated by the setting sun. Hofmann's new manner of painting finds its originality in Setting Sun, wherein gestural strokes of pure color emerge with unexpected formal clarity. Here, he shows the lifelong influence of Piet Mondrian, drawing heavily on the Dutch painter's use of abstract shapes, compositional order and flat un-modulated color. In his works of this period, Hofmann applies paint to emphasize the planar surface of the work. The picture's negation of illusionistic depth and its bright, unfiltered color pay homage to Mondrian's process of painting. Nonetheless Hofmann achieves balance by mediating his own intuitive sense of expressive color and spatial relation with Mondrian's objective and methodical program.
Setting Sun remains distinct from Hofmann's work of just a year later, favoring its rhythmic composition of irregular forms over a harsh, linear structure. Always interested in the potential of vibrant color, it was only in the 1950s that Hofmann discovered how color can transform a series of brushstrokes into a harmonious pictorial entity. In Setting Sun, rich color generates the potent forms and shapes that cover the canvas. His confident, horizontal strokes recall those of Claude Monet, another master of color. Hofmann's picture asserts its modernity however, by collapsing the distinction between color and subject matter. While Monet's pastoral pictures place the imagery first and choose hue as a consequence, Hofmann's colors determine pattern and form. Form becomes a consequence, while color becomes the subject. In this resolutely abstract work, Hofmann links the Impressionist style of loose brushwork with the saturated hues of the Fauvist painters, thereby endowing both movements with new currency and relevance. In Setting Sun, Hofmann takes inspiration from nature, believing that the natural experience corresponds to the pictorial one.
In Setting Sun Hans Hofmann uses jewel-toned hues to clarify the thick impasto paint, and creates a dynamic surface that finds its own rhythm and order through its arrangement of color. In 1957, the penultimate year of his legendary teaching career, Hofmann refines his stylistic approach, distilling his freely painted compositions into more structured arrangements of rich colors and abstract shapes. Set on a grand scale, Setting Sun illustrates the artist's decisive move towards the planar, geometric style for which he would become known. As its title suggests, the picture is centered on a brilliantly painted red orb throwing its orange light over a verdant landscape below. Hofmann shows his sensitivity to tonal proportion and color pairing when he amplifies the intensity of his atmospheric oranges and reds by placing them alongside their contrasting greens and blues with splashes of yellow and white highlights. The artist paints large areas of green with deep red holding the center, while placing vibrant orange and yellow toward the edge. Finally, he punctuates the large spaces of color with small swatches of bright yellow and blue, which resemble water, plants, or flowers illuminated by the setting sun. Hofmann's new manner of painting finds its originality in Setting Sun, wherein gestural strokes of pure color emerge with unexpected formal clarity. Here, he shows the lifelong influence of Piet Mondrian, drawing heavily on the Dutch painter's use of abstract shapes, compositional order and flat un-modulated color. In his works of this period, Hofmann applies paint to emphasize the planar surface of the work. The picture's negation of illusionistic depth and its bright, unfiltered color pay homage to Mondrian's process of painting. Nonetheless Hofmann achieves balance by mediating his own intuitive sense of expressive color and spatial relation with Mondrian's objective and methodical program.
Setting Sun remains distinct from Hofmann's work of just a year later, favoring its rhythmic composition of irregular forms over a harsh, linear structure. Always interested in the potential of vibrant color, it was only in the 1950s that Hofmann discovered how color can transform a series of brushstrokes into a harmonious pictorial entity. In Setting Sun, rich color generates the potent forms and shapes that cover the canvas. His confident, horizontal strokes recall those of Claude Monet, another master of color. Hofmann's picture asserts its modernity however, by collapsing the distinction between color and subject matter. While Monet's pastoral pictures place the imagery first and choose hue as a consequence, Hofmann's colors determine pattern and form. Form becomes a consequence, while color becomes the subject. In this resolutely abstract work, Hofmann links the Impressionist style of loose brushwork with the saturated hues of the Fauvist painters, thereby endowing both movements with new currency and relevance. In Setting Sun, Hofmann takes inspiration from nature, believing that the natural experience corresponds to the pictorial one.