Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) was one of the most progressive and influential art teachers in America in the 20th century—an achievement that has often overshadowed his artistic accomplishments. This focused exhibition presents a small but revealing selection of paintings and works on paper from the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery that engage with Hofmann’s dual legacy as an artist-teacher and illustrate how teaching informed his own prolific output.
From 1934 to 1935, when he founded his eponymous schools in New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts, to 1957, when he closed both to devote himself to painting, Hofmann brought a dynamic approach to instruction in the formal principles of color, form, and space. Throughout his work, he espoused his famous “push/pull” theory, which stressed the importance of opposing forces in color or form to create a sense of advancement and recession, thus activating the picture. As the dynamic works in the exhibition illustrate, Hofmann’s artistic practice is indebted to the traditions of European Modernism but also marked by radical innovation and contradictory extremes.
Read more about the exhibition in the fall 2025 magazine (PDF).
