Untitled 1928

This untitled work by Hans Hofmann is a landscape made with pen and ink, on paper. Hofmann’s artmaking always felt like an open process, a kind of thinking-through-doing. Here, the material itself isn't hidden. The lines are raw, immediate – you can almost feel the speed of his hand. Look at how he renders the clouds; the sky feels heavy, pregnant with possibility. But then there are these light, playful marks that cut through, like a visual joke. Hofmann once said that art should always have "a surprise." He embraces ambiguity. It’s like he’s saying, "Here’s what I see, but also, here’s what it could be." It reminds me of Guston’s late work, that sense of the absurd mixed with a deep, almost melancholic, looking.