Hans Hofmann was a strong influence on many American Abstract Expressionist artists, as a teacher and, especially, as a draughtsman; his own practice as an oil painter manifested itself later in his career. His firsthand knowledge and experience of French and German avant-garde art included the emergent Cubism and Fauvism in Europe, and he knew the major protagonists.

Two drawings from 1935 show Hofmann’s adoption of elements of these styles. The dynamic diagonals of Seated female nude contrast with rhythmic curves in Reclining female nude: we see remnants of Picasso and Braque’s angular Cubism versus Matisse’s expressive Fauvism. Eight years later, his Seated female figure 1943 shows Hofmann’s evolution, and mature synthesis of both approaches.

Hofmann spent his first decades in the United States practising and teaching drawing, and his fluency increased during this time. Using brush and ink allowed freedoms such as the dramatic outlining of forms, as well as larger movements of the artist’s hand and arm over the sheet. Close observation of the model’s body was transformed into more complex aesthetic choices. As Hofmann became a most important influence on the development of Abstract Expressionism, the increasing abstraction of nature was more evident as American artists liberate themselves from the European tradition.

Christine Dixon