Red Sky 1943

Editor: So, here we have Hans Hofmann's "Red Sky" from 1943, created with pastel and drawing materials. There’s such an intensity to the colors – reds, yellows, purples – almost like a volcanic eruption translated into visual form. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: It’s funny you say volcanic. I always see a landscape grappling to emerge, or maybe deconstruct. Hofmann's a master of pushing and pulling, isn’t he? He understood how clashing colors create a feeling of spatial dynamism; look how that almost garish pink somehow deepens the reds! Do you see how he kind of smashes together representation with pure feeling? Editor: Yes, the spatial dynamics are very compelling. It’s like he's playing with your perception, creating chaos and harmony all at once. The colours seem to be fighting, but also defining one another. Curator: Precisely! And remember the context – this was wartime. Abstraction wasn’t just about aesthetics; for many artists it was about forging a new language, expressing feelings too raw for conventional forms. Could this ‘red sky’ be about something more sinister, more explosive? Perhaps less an environment, and more the contents of the artist's turbulent state, something internal he needs to liberate on paper, as raw mark making? Editor: That definitely gives me a new perspective. Seeing it as internal rather than external, you change how I read the artwork, giving new levels of depth and understanding. Thank you. Curator: It works that way, art eh? You see a landscape, I see a mindscape… both probably right, and that's why we are still looking!