Included for its distinctly apolitical take on art. Hofmann is a pure abstract modernist who values the expression of the genius’ inner self rather than political content.
Hans Hofmann “On the Aims of Art” Art in Theory: 1900-2000. ed. Harrison and Wood pp. 371-374
“The medium which is used in creating becomes the world of art if the principles and meaning, the essential nature of the medium are mastered and if the artist is intuitive in spirit. For artistic intuition emanates from the cosmos and embraces the whole world. The vaulting, creative mind recognizes no boundaries to its realm, the mind has ever brought new spheres under control. Artistic intuition is the basis for confidence of the spirit. Art is always spiritual, a result of introspection, finding expression through the natural entity of the medium. Every medium of expression has its own laws; founded on these laws it can be made to resonate and vibrate when stimulated by the impulses coming directly from the natural world, when the artist is equipped with finely balanced sense and mentality, conscious feeling and memory. The artist intensifies his concepts, condenses his experience into a spiritual reality complete in itself and thus creates a new reality in terms of the medium. Thus is the work of art a world in itself but reflecting the sensorial and emotional world for the artist” p. 371
“Scope of influence is not a measure of artistic quality. The only values which make a work of art great are emotional and sensory. Life-content. Expressed experience. Sensory raw material blended to a spiritual unity through legitimate use of the medium is art. In this sense the small picture format might be much more living, much more leavening, stirring, awakening than square yards of wall space” p. 372
“We must discriminate between the word ‘decorative’ in a pictorial sense and decorative in a naturalistic sense. The pictorially decorative effect is achieved through musical contrasts and rhythmic relations conditioned by space. This leads to abstractions, through which objective values are by no means necessarily eliminated, but on the contrary are made more effective by rhythmic relation. Color and form then function symbolically.
The word ‘decorative’ used in a naturalistic sense implies only the representation of objects in a further developed objective arrangement directed by fanciful and arbitrary taste and subordinated to some literary meaning foreign to the art of painting for itself. For the valuation of a painting however, all literary or journalistic considerations should not be abandoned entirely. Burdening the canvas with propaganda or history does not made the painting a better work of art. Such burdening, in the majority of cases, decreases the quality of the work and with it the living, vivid relations and swinging, vibrating space proper to a work of visual art” p. 373
Hofmann judges a work of art successful when:
1. It embodies an inner essence of the specific medium in which it is presented – the artist has to ask what is the expression most proper to the medium (be it painting, film, or otherwise), then manipulate it to their personal ends. The focus on medium has a tendency to embrace abstraction under modernism, but political art should take this into consideration as well by thinking about how different mediums shape possible messages.
2. It creates a singular sensual/emotional experience that is not directed at ends other than the experience itself. The demand to use the medium as a guide for shaping expression also translates into a pursuit of emotional experiences that can only happen through specific mediums in specific times and places.