Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) is one of the most prominent figures of postwar American art. Celebrated for his exuberant, colour-filled canvases, and renowned as an influential teacher for generations of artists—first in his birthplace of Germany, then in New York and Provincetown—Hofmann played a pivotal role in the development of Abstract Expressionism. From his early landscapes of the 1930s to his “slab” paintings of the late 1950s and his abstract works at the end of his career upon his death in 1966, Hofmann continued to create boldly experimental colour combinations and formal contrasts that transcended genre and style.
