Hans Hofmann Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“My aim in painting is to create pulsating, luminous, and open surfaces that emanate a mystic light, in accordance with my deepest insight into the experience of life and nature.”

“Art is magic... But how is it magic? In its metaphysical development? Or does some final transformation culminate in a magic reality? In truth, the latter is impossible without the former. If creation is not magic, the outcome cannot be magic.”

“Art cannot result from sophisticated, frivolous, or superficial effects.”

“Being inexhaustible, life and nature are a constant stimulus for a creative mind.”

“Every art expression is rooted fundamentally in the personality and temperament of the artist.”

“It makes no difference whether a work is naturalistic or abstract; every visual expression follows the same fundamental laws.”

“Color is a plastic means of creating intervals... color harmonics produced by special relationships, or tensions. We differentiate now between formal tensions and color tensions, just as we differentiate in music between counterpoint and harmony.”

“To worship the product and ignore its development leads to dilettantism and reaction.”

“An idea can only be materialized with the help of a medium of expression, the inherent qualities of which must be surely sensed and understood in order to become the carrier of an idea.”

“Creation is dominated by three absolutely different factors: First, nature, which works upon us by its laws; second, the artist, who creates a spiritual contact with nature and his materials; third, the medium of expression through which the artist translates his inner world.”