Drawings by Hans Hofmann, August 1-31, 1931

Hans Hofmann was a renowned artist and teacher and is considered to have preceded and influenced Abstract Expressionism. He was born on March 21, 1880 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany to Theodor Friedrich Hofmann and Franziska Manger Hofmann. In 1886, his family moved to Munich. From a young age, Hofmann gravitated towards science and mathematics and at age sixteen, followed his father into public service, working for the Bavarian government as assistant to the director of Public Works. During this time, Hofmann also became interested in creative studies, beginning art lessons between 1898 and 1899 with German artist Moritz Heymann.

Between 1900 and 1904, Hofmann met his future wife, Maria “Miz” Wolfegg in Munich, and also became acquainted with Philipp Freudenberg, an avid art collector and owner of a high-end department store in Berlin. Freudenberg became Hofmann's patron over the next decade, enabling him to relocate and live in Paris.

In Paris, Hofmann studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and Académie Colarossi. He also immersed himself in Paris's avant-garde art scene, working with Matisse and becoming friends with Picasso, Georges Braque, and Robert and Sonia Delaunay. Hoffman worked and exhibited in Paris until the onset of World War I, producing paintings most influenced by the Cubists and Cézanne. He was forced to return to Germany, but excluded from military service because of a respiratory condition. Hofmann opened an art school in Munich in 1915, developing a reputation as a forward-thinking instructor. In 1931, it was called “the most notable academy of modern art in Central Europe.”

In 1930, he was invited to teach at the University of California, Berkeley and his tenure in 1930 and again in the summer sessions of 1931 were successful for his career. The 1931 exhibition at the Legion of Honor was the first of Hofmann’s works in the United States, notably none of his paintings were included, rather only his drawings. The two summers he guest taught at Berkeley paved the way for him to settle in the United States in 1932, where he resided until the end of his life.

Between 1933 and 1958, Hofmann balanced his studio work with teaching, and as he did in Paris, immersed himself in and influenced New York's growing avant-garde art scene. He reopened his art school in 1934, conducting classes in New York and in Provincetown during the summer. In 1941, he became an American citizen. In 1958, he retired from teaching to focus on painting, which led to a late-career efflorescence of his work. In 1963, Miz Hofmann, his partner and wife for over sixty years, passed away. Two years later, Hofmann married Renate Schmitz, who remained with him until his death in New York City on February 17, 1966.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, ""Hans Hofmann,"" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hans_Hofmann&oldid=1078690835 (accessed May 3, 2022).