NYAB Event - "Search for the Real: Drawings by Hans Hofmann and His Students" Exhibition

"Search for the Real: Drawings by Hans Hofmann and His Students" Exhibition

Baruch College/Sidney Mishkin Gallery

This event has ended.

Baruch College presents a new exhibition, Search for the Real: Drawings by Hans Hofmann and his Students. The exhibition includes drawings by Hofmann and approximately 26 drawings by his students. The work of some of his best known students will be exhibited, including George McNeil, Mercedes Matter, Giorgio Cavallon, Blanche Lazzell, and Vaclav Vytlacil.

Hans Hofmann, who taught that abstract art evolved from nature, was an important conduit of European modernist ideas for American artists. He was one of the most influential of the émigré artists to arrive in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, during the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and the early years of the war. Known for his school in Munich, Hofmann was invited to teach summer school at the University of California at Berkeley in 1930 and again in 1931. In 1932 he moved to New York City and taught at the Art Students League, where his first students included Mercedes Carles Matter and George McNeil. By the autumn of 1933, Hofmann had opened his own school, the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts, on Madison Avenue. The next year, he moved his school to East 57th Street and then, in 1936, to Greenwich Village, where many of the young artists lived and worked. Hofmann also extended his program with summer sessions in Provincetown, beginning in 1935.

Famous for his discussions of composition, Hofmann is best known for his theory of "push and pull," which he considered essential to defining the picture space. Some of the drawings in the exhibition are marked with Hofmann's corrections, illustrating his teaching principles and style.

Search for the Real: Drawings by Hans Hofmann and His Students highlights the work of a famous artist and demonstrates how his ideas influenced the history and development of modern art in the United States. Organized by the Provincetown Art Association and Museum by curators Donald Beal and Christine McCarthy, the exhibition is funded in part by the Renate, Hans & Maria Hofmann Trust.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Weissman Talks Onstage Dialogue Series presents a panel discussion with Karen Wilkin, moderator, on November 18, at 7:00 P.M. and the documentary film Hans Hofmann: Artist/Teacher, Teacher/Artist by Madeline Amgott, narrated by Robert De Niro, on November 30, at 7:00 P.M. Both of these events will be held at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. Free Admission.