Untitled 1929

Hans Hofmann made this untitled ink drawing on paper sometime in his late period. The composition, which is a mass of lines and shapes, shows us the artist’s engagement with abstraction. However, what sets Hofmann apart is the link between abstraction and the real world. You can see this in the work’s visual codes. The lines are suggestive of the urban environment. The overall impression isn’t far from a cityscape. The drawing appears to have been made in the United States, given the artist’s signature and date in the lower right corner. After emigrating from Germany, Hofmann became part of the New York School and he began a teaching career that would influence generations of American artists. As art historians, we consider the social conditions in which artists like Hofmann were working, using archives of letters, exhibition reviews, and critical essays to better understand them. Ultimately, we understand art as a product of specific social and institutional contexts.