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Hans Hofmann Quotes
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The width of a line may present the idea of infinity. An epigram may contain a world. In the same way, a small picture format may be much more living, much more leavening, stirring, awakening, than square yards of wall space.
Hans Hofmann
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We are connected with our own age if we recognize ourselves in relation to outside events; and we have grasped its spirit when we influence the future.
Hans Hofmann
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A work is endowed with inner greatness by the technical means which parallels the artist's experience and human discipline.
Hans Hofmann
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The aim of art, so far as one can speak of an aim at all, has always been the same; the blending of experience gained in life with the natural qualities of the art medium.
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Artistic intuition is the basis for confidence of the spirit. Art is a reflection of the spirit, a result of introspection, which finds expression in the nature of the art medium.
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The universe itself is limited in its complexity. Only the absolute nothing is unlimited, unthinkable, unseizable, shapeless, forceless, non-existent.
Hans Hofmann
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The structure of a picture depends on the limitations of the picture plane. The first line of the composition establishes the creative format. The physical limitations of a picture become the start and the finish of the spirit's communication.
Hans Hofmann
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An inner sensation can find external expression only through a spiritual realization.
Hans Hofmann
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Every work of art is the product of the artist's power for conscious feeling, and of his sensitivity to life-in-nature and life within the limits of his medium.
Hans Hofmann
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The knowledge of reality, achieved by means of the complete sensory equipment, must be expressed artistically in terms of a medium which appeals to the memory of all sensory experience — but only through the eye.
Hans Hofmann
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It makes no difference whether a work is naturalistic or abstract; every visual expression follows the same fundamental laws.
Hans Hofmann
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This two-way transformation proceeds from metaphysical perceptions, for metaphysics is the search for the essential nature of reality. And so artistic creation is the metamorphosis of the external physical aspects of a thing into a self-sustaining spiritual reality. Such is the magic act which takes place continuously in the development of a work of art. On this and only on this is creation based.
Hans Hofmann
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Every art expression is rooted fundamentally in the personality and temperament of the artist.
Hans Hofmann
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The art of pictorial creation is so complicated — it is so astronomical in its possibilities of relation and combination that it would take an act of super-human concentration to explain the final realization.
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The encompassing, creative mind recognizes no boundaries. The mind has ever brought new spheres under its control.
All our experiences culminate in the perception of the universe as a whole, with man as its center.
Hans Hofmann
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It isn't necessary to make things large to make them monumental; a head by Giacometti one inch high would be able to vitalize this whole space.
Hans Hofmann
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Robert Motherwell:
Would you say that a fair statement of your position is that the 'meaning' of a work of art consists of the relations among the elements, and not the elements themselves?
Hofmann:
Yes, that I would definitely say. You make a thin line and a thick line. It is the same with geometrical shapes. It is all relationship. Without all these relationships it is not possible to express higher art.
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A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world.
Just as a flower, by virtue of its existence as a complete organism is both ornamental and self-sufficient as to color, form, and texture, so art, because of its singular existence is more than mere ornament.
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A glimpse heavenward at a constellation or even at a single star only suggests infinity; actually our vision is limited. We cannot perceive unlimited space; it is immeasurable. The universe, as we know it through our visual experience, is limited. It first came into existence with the formation of matter, and will end with the complete dissolution of matter.
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The significance of a work of art is determined then by the quality of its growth. This involves intangible forces inherent in the process of development. Although these forces are surreal (that is, their nature is something beyond physical reality), they, nevertheless, depend on a physical carrier. The physical carrier (commonly painting or sculpture) is the medium of expression of the Surreal. Thus, an idea is communicable only when the surreal is converted into material terms. The artist's technical problem is how to transform the material with which he works back into the sphere of the spirit.
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When the impulses which stir us to profound emotion are integrated with the medium of expression, every interview of the soul may become art. This is contingent upon mastery of the medium.
Hans Hofmann
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A thought functions only as a fragmentary part in the formulation of an idea.
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Being inexhaustible, life and nature are a constant stimulus for a creative mind.
Hans Hofmann
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The product of movement and counter-movement is tension. When tension — working strength — is expressed, it endows the work of art with the living effect of coordinated, though opposing, forces.
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Art is something absolute, something positive, which gives power just as food gives power.
While creative science is a mental food, art is the satisfaction of the soul.
Hans Hofmann
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Quote of the day
At last, in 1611, was made, under the auspices of King James, the famous King James version; and this is the great literary monument of the English language.
Lafcadio Hearn
Hans Hofmann
Born:
March 21, 1880
Died:
February 17, 1966
(aged 85)
Bio:
Hans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter.
Known for:
Yellow Table on Green (1936)
The Golden Wall (1961)
The Gate (1960)
Most used words:
art
nature
expression
color
work
medium
spiritual
life
artist
light
space
reality
relation
plastic
physical
Hans Hofmann on Wikipedia
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