Summer Night's Bliss 1961

Hans Hofmann made this painting, Summer Night's Bliss, with oil paint, and it's like diving into a memory. He was all about pushing paint around, letting it drip and bleed, so you get this feeling of something always in motion. Look at how he layers the colors, thick strokes of maroon and orange fighting with flicks of yellow and pink. You can practically feel the push and pull of the brush. The texture is key here. See that swipe of bright yellow slicing through the dark maroon? It's like a sudden thought, a burst of energy cutting through the night. You can almost see him making the mark. Hofmann was always experimenting, trying to capture something beyond the surface. It reminds me a bit of late Turner, that sense of atmosphere and light breaking down form, only with Hofmann you're getting pure feeling, no landscape needed. It's painting as a verb, not a noun.