David Richard Gallery | News

January 6, 2020
Press Release - George Hofmann "More Than A Feeling"
News

GEORGE HOFMANN
More Than A Feeling


February 1 through 28, 2020

OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, FROM 3:00 - 7:00 PM


David Richard Gallery, LLC
211 East 121 ST | New York, NY 10035
P: (212) 882-1705
www.davidrichardgallery.com


David Richard Gallery is pleased to announce, “More Than A Feeling,” a solo exhibition of recent paintings by New York-based artist George Hofmann and his debut presentation with the Gallery. The exhibition will be on view from February 1 through 28, 2020 at David Richard Gallery located at 211 East 121 Street, New York, New York 10035, P: 212-882-1705. The presentation includes 12 paintings created during 2008 through 2010 that range in size from 40 x 32 inches and up to 70 x 90 inches. The abstract compositions fill the canvases from edge-to-edge with sweeping passages of harmonic and nuanced color palettes, while the titles reference landscapes, the sea, clouds and light. The viewer’s contemplation of the imagery is provoked by such titles.

Hofmann’s paintings reference nature, earth elements and contemplative moments from his personal life. However, his work has evolved more out of emotion and less from his classical and analytical art training. Hofmann uses his gut reaction to making decisions about color selections, painting surfaces and methods of applying pigment to supports. In that regard, he sees his work as more ideological and being true to himself and his emotions rather than what is popular at any moment in time. His application of paint by a variety of methods, including staining, brushing, layering and overpainting is thus soulful, creating an experience of the world he sees and moments he has lived, rather than a detailed picture or actual image.

Having studied during the peak and later years of Abstract Expressionism, then beginning his professional career alongside the explosion of Color Field painting, it is no wonder his work is rooted in bold, strong gestures with swaths and large passages of harmonic hues of color. Creating abstract paintings for over six decades, Hofmann explores color and form using a variety of techniques with saturated hues and dilute glazes of acrylic paint. His preferred supports are canvas, linen and paper. However, recently, Hofmann has been working on smooth wood panels that reveal the grain so that he can build and excavate the paint to fragment his compositions on a natural surface, making them more reductive and a different viewing experience.

About George Hofmann:

George Hofmann was born in Jamaica, NY in 1938. He studied at The High School of Music and Art, New York, NY from 1952 to 1956 with a year (1955) at the Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He then studied at Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste, Nuremberg, Germany from 1958 to 1962. After returning to the US, he taught at C. W. Post College, Long Island University and was an Artist in Residence from 1963 to 1966, then at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY from 1967 to 1968 followed by an Instructor in1969 at Yale University Summer School, Norfolk, CT. Most of his career was teaching at Hunter College, NY alongside other illustrious and important faculty, including Sanford Wurmfeld, Robert Swain, Doug Ohlson and Ray Parker, among others. Hofmann is passionate about art history and its influence on his painting and other artist’s works and writes thoughtful and challenging essays on contemporary painting. Hofmann’s artworks are included in the permanent collections of the Albany Institute of History and Art, NY, Boston Public Library, MA, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA and W. Virginia University, Morgantown, as well as numerous corporate and private collections.


About David Richard Gallery:

Since its inception in 2010, David Richard Gallery has produced museum quality exhibitions that feature Post War abstraction in the US. The presentations have addressed specific decades and geographies as well as certain movements and tendencies. While the gallery has long been recognized as an important proponent of post-1960s abstraction—including both the influential pioneers as well as a younger generation of practitioners in this field— in keeping with this spirit of nurture and development the gallery also presents established artists who embrace more gestural and representational approaches to the making of art as well as young emerging artists.

In 2015 David Richard Gallery launched DR Art Projects to provide a platform for artists of all stripes—international, national, local, emerging and established—to present special solo projects or to participate in unique collaborations or thematic exhibitions. The goal is to offer a fresh look at contemporary art practice from a broad spectrum of artists and presentations. The Gallery opened its current location in New York in 2017.

All Artwork Copyright © George Hofmann, Courtesy David Richard Gallery.

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January 17, 2017
Globalocation: Celebrating 20 Years of Artnauts
J. Willard Marriott Library
The University of Utah, 01/17/2017

The University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library will host the art exhibition Globalocation: Celebrating 20 Years of Artnauts, Jan. 20-March 3.

Artnauts, an art collective formed 20 years ago by George Rivera, professor of art and art history at the University of Colorado, Boulder, consists of 300 global artists who serve as goodwill ambassadors, acknowledging and supporting victims of oppression worldwide. Their creativity has generated over 230 exhibitions across five continents. Five faculty members from the U’s Department of Art and Art History are members of the collective, Sandy Brunvand, Beth Krensky, V. Kim Martinez, Brian Snapp and Xi Zhang.

Globalocation derives from “Globalocational Art” — a concept used by the Artnauts to refer to their exhibitions in international venues. It is the mission of the Artnauts to take art to places of contention, and this anniversary exhibition is a sample of places where they have been and themes they have addressed.

“The Artnauts could not exist without the commitment of the artists in the collective to a common vision of the transformative power of art,” said Rivera. “The Artnauts make their contribution with art that hopefully generates a dialogue with an international community on subjects that are sometimes difficult to raise.”

Krensky, associate department chair of the Art and Art History Department, had the opportunity to travel with Rivera in Chile as part of an Artnauts project, working with mothers who were searching for their children who had mysteriously disappeared during a time of political unrest.

“When I travelled to Chile in 1998, George and I spent an afternoon with the Mothers of the Disappeared, and the meeting changed my life,” said Krensky. “It was from that moment on that I placed a picture of them on my desk to look at every day. I was so moved by what they each had lost — a son, a brother, a father — and yet what remained for them was a deep, deep well of love. They were fierce warriors and stood up to the government to demand the whereabouts and information of the people who had disappeared, but they lived within profound love.”

The 20th anniversary exhibition at the Marriott Library is a retrospective of the traveling works the Artnauts have toured around the globe. The exhibition will be located on level three of the library. The opening reception is open to the public and will be held on Friday, Jan 20, 4-6 p.m. Rivera will speak at 4 p.m.

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