Hans Hofmann: Circa 1950

Celebrated for his exuberant, color-packed canvases, and legendarily influential as a teacher to several generations of artists―first in his native Germany, then in New York and Provincetown―Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) looms large indeed over postwar American painting. Circa 1950 accompanies The Rose Art Museum's examination of the nine studies for murals that Hofmann produced for the Chimbote Project, architect Josep Sert's 1950 Peruvian urban planning project. These works show Hofmann hitting an apex in his art: his canvasses spill over with gloriously messy energy, and palpable physicality, as they riff on strong, anchoring, circular, angular and cruciform forms. This full-color catalogue embellishes images from the project with essays by curators Michael Rush and Catherine Morris, and renowned critic Irving Sandler.