Legends of Distant Past Days 1965

Hans Hofmann made this oil on canvas painting called Legends of Distant Past Days, and it’s a trip. I mean, look at those browns – burnt umber, raw sienna – they’re like earth, like memory. I can almost see him, Hofmann, attacking the canvas, pushing the paint around with a palette knife. I bet he was thinking about color relationships, about push and pull, trying to get that white to vibrate against the brown. That little yellow squirt down there, it’s like a sunbeam breaking through the clouds, or is it a tear? And then that blue slash, so assertive, like a defiant gesture. He wasn’t afraid to make a mess. It reminds me of de Kooning, that same kind of raw energy, but Hofmann’s got his own thing going on. They all do. Each painter adds their voice to the chorus. It’s all about the conversation, you know? The back and forth, the give and take. That’s the legend.