Magenta and Blue 1950

Editor: Hans Hofmann's *Magenta and Blue,* painted in 1950 with acrylic on canvas, strikes me as a visual puzzle. Its composition is a riot of shapes and colors, yet I can’t quite put my finger on what it all means. What do you make of this explosion of form and color? Curator: Explosion is exactly right! Hofmann, you see, he's not just throwing paint at a canvas, though it may look like it at first glance. He's wrestling with space, pushing and pulling those colours – magenta against blue, of course, but all the others, too – creating a tension, a visual vibration. Imagine color as a force, a life force even. And this, this canvas is where it all collides! Don't you feel it? That almost unsettling energy? Editor: I do feel the energy. The colours definitely vibrate! So it’s less about what something *is*, and more about what it *does*? Curator: Precisely! It’s about the *doing*. The act of painting itself, that “push and pull” he called it, the way colour interacts with colour. The canvas isn’t a window onto a scene. No. It's the scene itself. A world being born, wouldn’t you say? It is as if he invites the viewers to do that last bit of painting themselves. What does it mean for *you*? Editor: That's a wonderful thought – that the artwork remains forever alive, incomplete without me adding to it with my feelings. Curator: I rather liked how you brought that home. Cheers to feeling that buzz of color and form. It will make your life interesting.