Indian Summer 1959

Hans Hofmann made ‘Indian Summer’ with oil on canvas; the marks are bold, the colors are intense, and the surface feels alive. I can imagine him wrestling with it. There’s a real physicality to the way the paint has been applied, like he’s pushing and pulling the colors around the canvas until they settle into something that feels just right. And those colors, wow! They're singing out loud. Hofmann's got this red, orange, blue, and green thing going on. He’s really pushing them up against each other to see what kind of sparks might fly, like he's asking them to play nice, or maybe fight a little. I love how Hofmann isn’t afraid to let the paint be itself. He’s clearly looked at Matisse, who in turn looked at Cezanne. It’s like he’s saying, ‘Here I am, world, take me as I am.’ It's all part of this long, ongoing conversation that artists have with each other across time.