Confessional Screen c. 1936

William Hoffman’s ‘Confessional Screen’ looks like it was made on a whim, maybe on paper, with ink and whatever paint was lying around. I see the artist experimenting, trying to work out the puzzle of the confessional screen. One panel is opaque, the other, transparent. It makes me think about the idea of confession itself. What is concealed and what is revealed? I see Hoffman working, scratching with his pen to get a handle on how this thing might function. The contrast between the rigid lines of the frame, and the free-flowing paint—that dripping black and purple paint—speaks to the struggle between form and formlessness, the tension between revealing and concealing. We are all in this together, all artists are in conversation. Hoffman reminds me of Guston, Schwitters, maybe Twombly. It’s like he’s saying, “Hey, I’m here too, trying to figure out how to make something new, how to give form to the formless."