Night Spell

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Night Spell

Artist Hans Hofmann (American, 1880-1966)

Date1965

DimensionsPainting: 73 1/2 × 61 1/2 × 2 in. (186.7 × 156.2 × 5.1 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1970.50

Not on View

Label TextMy aim in painting is to create pulsating, luminous, and open surfaces that emanate a mystic light, in accordance with my deepest insight into the experience of life and nature. In Night Spell large areas of color push and pull, demonstrating Hans Hofmann’s belief that the advancing and receding values of colors, as well as their relative gloss, size, texture, and placement, can enliven the space of a painting without depicting recognizable objects. While the canvas has been worked overall with spots of color and expressive strokes of paint, the four rectangles dominate the composition. The two reds vibrate against each other, barely balanced by the large cool purple shape on the left. Completing the composition is the bright green block that anchors the painting. After coming to the United States in the 1930s to escape Nazi oppression, the German-born Hofmann earned a reputation as a legendary teacher and played a decisive role in the development of Abstract Expressionism.Published References"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 130, no. 1225, Feb. 1971, repr. p. 113.

"Recent Accessions...," Art Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 2, Summer 1971, p. 256.

Koningsberger, Hans, The World of Vermeer, 1632-1675, New York, 1967, p. 19, repr. (col.) p. 18.

Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 95 (col.).

Phillips, Robert F., "Abstract Expressionists," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, XIX, no. 4, 1977, pp. 89-91, repr. pl. I (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 61, pl. 266, col. pl. VIII.

Landau, Ellen G., "'Space and Pictorial Life,' Hans Hofmann's Smaragd Red and Germinating Yellow," Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 5, Sept. 1985, p. 318, fig. 16.

Goodman, Cynthia, Hans Hofmann, Munich, 1990, repr. p. 158 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 334, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 56, repr. (col.)

Page, Jutta-Annette, Peter Morrin, and Robert Bell, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, Toledo, OH, 2012, p. 93, repr. (col.) fig. 3.

Exhibition HistorySyracuse, Everson Museum of Art, Hans Hofmann, 1969.

Washington, Hirshhorn Museum and Scultpure Garden; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Hans Hofmann, A Retrospective Exhibition, 1976, no. 73, repr. (Cat. by W. D. Bannard).

Toledo Museum of Art, Everything is Rhythm: Mid-Century Art & Music, April 6, 2019-February 23, 2020.