Hans Hofmann in the Abstract and Nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Hans Hofmann in the Abstract and Nature - Essay modellingThe main concept behind abstract artistic creation is based on the idea that art is not static, but rather interactive with its audience and the political and social ideas of the audiences present as well as the symbols inherent in the particular forms engagementd within the artwork. By reducing the recognizable forms, therefore, it becomes possible for the operative to attain a more pure expression in his or her creation. Jean-Francois Lyotard argues that avant-garde art uses data-based innovations in technique and structure to attempt to make visible that there is something which brush off be conceived and which can neither be seen nor made visible (Lyotard, 1997 78).As an abstract artist, Hofmann was known as a synthesizer because he brought together traditional methods and avant-garde concepts concerning the nature of painting, largely based on the works of ultramodern painters Cezanne, Kandinsky and Picassos Synthe tic Cubism. Because teaching dominated much of his creative life, his art was often critically measured against his theories. With his European sensibilities and his newly adopted American spirit, it needs to be remembered that Hofmanns work exemplifies a fusion of multiple aspects of twentieth century art. A look into his biography reveals the development of his ideas regarding nature and abstraction while a glimpse into his career reveals how his teaching reflected this conceptual development. BiographyHans Hofmann was born in 1880 near Munich, Germany in a lesser city called Weissenburg, Bavaria. Growing up, he was surrounded by images of the past as his city still well-kept many remains of its ancient Roman past and of the countryside, with the closest large city being Ingolstadt more than 30 miles away. While this doesnt seem that far away to a modern audience accustomed to the use of cars to drive to the city every day from far off suburbs, Hoffman grew up in a succession wh en the automobile was just springing to life. The first practical on the job(p) horseless carriage was created in 1889 in Germany by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, when Hofmann was already 9 years old (Ament, 2005). It is possible that Hofmann had a chance to experience some of the technologies that were being develop in association with the automobile, however, because his father moved the family to Munich when Hofmann was just 6 when he took a job working for the government. Hofmann developed an engage in mathematics, science, music and art at a very early age. When he was sixteen, his father helped him obtain a job with the Bavarian government as the assistant to the director of reality works. During this time, Hofmann further developed his technical knowledge of mathematics, even inventing and patenting an electromagnetic comptometer (Hans Hofmann, 2007). Despite this, Hofmanns interest in art was superior to his interest in mathematics and, when his father died in the late 1800s, Hofmann decided to pursue this interest in greater detail.By 1898, Hofmann was studying art at the Mortiz Heymanns art school in Munich, where he came into contact with