Wild Vine 1961

Hans Hofmann made this painting, Wild Vine, with oils on canvas, sometime in the mid twentieth century. The paint in Wild Vine is juicy; you can see how Hofmann loaded his brush and let it glide, skip, and sometimes just plop onto the canvas. He wasn't trying to hide his process; instead, he put it right out there for us to see. Take a look at the lower part of the painting, where reds and oranges meet blues and violets, a riot of color. It’s a free for all of brushstrokes, thick and thin, where each mark seems to vibrate with its own energy. Hofmann seems to be in conversation with Matisse here. But where Matisse sought to create a sense of harmony, Hofmann seems to revel in the tension of opposing forces. This is not a painting that wants to sit still; it's alive with movement, change, and the wild energy of nature.