Rhapsody 1958

Hans Hofmann made this oil painting, Rhapsody, using thick daubs of color that, up close, might seem random, but from a distance, they pop and sing! It's like he built this landscape, or dreamscape, from small blocks of pigment. I can imagine Hofmann, brush in hand, totally absorbed, figuring out how to make this flat surface alive. What color next? How thick? Where to put it? You can almost feel his energy, the push and pull of his decisions as he worked it out. Look at the way the colors bump up against each other: the warmth of that red against the cool green. It's not just color, it's feeling! It's like he's turning up the volume on everything. Hofmann was so important for a whole generation of painters, he taught so many artists how to really see color and space. And you can see that legacy in so much of the painting that came after him. Artists are always talking to each other this way, across time, through their work.