INCCA Home Projects Current projects PhD research Hans Hofmann’s Last Lesson: A Study of the Artist’s Materials in the Last Decade of his Career (Dawn V. Rogala, University of Delaware)
PhD research Hans Hofmann’s Last Lesson: A Study of the Artist’s Materials in the Last Decade of his Career (Dawn V. Rogala, University of Delaware) Print E-mail

 

Name

Dawn V. Rogala

 

Title of research project / research interests

Hans Hofmann’s Last Lesson: A Study of the Artist’s Materials in the Last Decade of his Career

 

Affiliation(s)

University of Delaware (U.S.A.)

 

Supervisor(s)

Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner

 

Estimated date of completion

Spring 2013

 

Previous education and/or work experience

M.A./C.A.S. in art conservation, Buffalo State College/State University of New York

 

Abstract

Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) directly influenced thousands of students and indirectly affected countless others through his writings and through the teachings of former students at the forefront of art movements and institutions throughout the United States. While recent conservation research has revealed far-reaching media incompatibility problems resulting from the adoption of industrial materials by Hofmann and his Abstract Expressionist colleagues, there is limited primary documentation or published analyses of Hofmann's materials. In my dissertation I will identify the late-career painting materials used by Hofmann, and look for any relationship between Hofmann's materials, technique, and the impact of his choices on the long-term stability of his work. The target period for this analysis is a roughly ten-year span that includes the years just prior to and after the 1958 closing of Hofmann's schools in New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts. This representative catalogue of Hofmann's late-career materials will be compared with existing conservation survey and treatment documentation of Hofmann's work, and with both published and anecdotal assessments of Hofmann's rapid stylistic changes during this period.
I anticipate that the results of my research will define the role played by industrial materials in the emergence of Hofmann’s late-career signature style, clarify the impact of the teaching environment on Hofmann’s exposure to new materials, assess Hofmann’s relationship to the critical view of Abstract Expressionism as a material-driven style and reveal similarities in materials amongst the New York School artists, and directly impact the future conservation treatment of Abstract Expressionist and later works that incorporate industrial materials into an otherwise traditional artist’s palette.

 

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