This Fall, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) presents a fresh perspective on the artist and teacher widely considered to be one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. PEM is the exclusive east coast venue for Hans Hofmann: The Nature of Abstraction organized by the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). On view from September 21, 2019, through January 5, 2020, the exhibition presents the most comprehensive examination of Hans Hofmann's innovative and prolific career to date.

In 1963 Hofmann donated his most significant paintings to BAMPFA to form the world’s largest museum holdings of the artist’s work. Featuring more than 45 paintings—including works from private collections that have never been exhibited in a museum setting—Hans Hofmann: The Nature of Abstraction presents an unprecedented look at Hofmann’s studio practice, focusing on his continually experimental approach to painting and its expressive potential.

“This exhibition reveals the full force and voluminous output of Hofmann’s creativity. Powerfully influenced by Matisse’s use of color and Cubism’s displacement of form, he was continually evolving his practice and searching for new forms of expression,” said Lydia Gordon, PEM’s Associate Curator for Exhibitions and Research and the exhibition’s coordinating curator. “Both as a teacher and a practitioner, Hofmann famously wrestled with the ‘push and pull’ of a painting, which he described as the interdependent relationships among form, color, texture, and space that create the effect of movement.”

Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) played a pivotal role in the development of Abstract Expressionism and is celebrated for his exuberant canvases. Renowned as an influential teacher for generations of artists—first in his native Germany, then in New York and Provincetown—Hofmann left an indelible legacy on painting. As a teacher and as a modern artist, Hofmann associated with many of the most notable artists, critics, and dealers of the 20th century, including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Wassily Kandinsky, Peggy Guggenheim, Clement Greenberg, Jackson Pollock, and many others.

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PEM (The Nature of Abstraction) 2019 Hans Hofmann