Hans Hofmann

Estate of the Artist
Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust, New York (acquired in 1996)
Ameringer Howard Fine Art, New York
Riva Yares Gallery, Santa Fe
Private Collection, California (acquired from the above in 1999)

Andover, Phillips Academy, Addison Gallery of American Art, Hans Hofmann: Painter and Teacher, January - February 1948, p. 88, illustrated
Iowa, Des Moines Art Center; San Francisco Museum of Art; Art Galleries of the University of California at Los Angeles; Seattle Art Museum; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center; Utica, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Hans Hofmann, July 1957 - June 1958
Santa Fe, Riva Yares Gallery, Hans Hofmann: Major Paintings 1935-1964, July - August 1999, p. 14, illustrated in color

Sara T. Weeks and Bartlett H. Hayes Jr., eds., Search for the Real, and Other Essays, Cambridge, 1967, p. 82, illustrated 
Suzi Villiger, ed., Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings Vol. II: 1901-1951, London, 2014, cat. no. P661, p. 404, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. The canvas is unlined. There is light wear and intermittent hairline cracking in the pigment along the turning edges and light wear at the corners of the canvas. A faint surface accretion at the bottom center quadrant of the canvas is visible under close inspection. Under Ultraviolet light, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Painted in 1947, at the close of a decade of experimentation and growth, Nuclear is the result of years of artistic development for Hans Hofmann. Hofmann had always been deeply involved in the art scene, living and studying in Europe alongside the founders of Cubism and Fauvism. Hofmann even established his own art school in Munich. It was only after his move to New York in 1931, however, that Hofmann began to fully develop his own distinct style. Hofmann recognized his new inspiration, writing in a letter in the early 1940s, “My work comes along in rather an experimental period in which I find myself on the way to highest freedom.” (Cynthia Goodman, Hans Hofmann, Munich, 1990, p. 49) Critics, too, felt this new vitality in his artwork, and in 1946, the term "Abstract Expressionism" was first coined and applied to an exhibition of Hofmann’s work at the Mortimer Brandt Gallery.

During this time, Hofmann gradually discarded the black outlines and Provincetown landscapes from his earlier work and moved towards total abstraction. His compositions became increasingly bold and spontaneous, using bright swaths of color. However, Hofmann never fully abandoned his original influences from his formative years in Paris, and he was able to successfully synthesize the old and the new to create works that fused history with modernity. In Nuclear, Hofmann echoes several of his contemporaries: deftly combining Miró-like whimsical forms with the softer, rounded forms of Arp and angular shapes reminiscent of Kandinsky. The late 1940s represent a highly sought-after period for Hofmann, with two other paintings from 1947, Gestation and Ecstasy in important collections of Frank Stella and the museum of the University of California, Berkeley, respectively. Widely recognized for their innovation, these paintings from the late 1940s mark not only a pivotal moment in Hofmann’s oeuvre, but also in the art world at large.