The Golden Wall

After studying in Paris among early Fauve and Cubist artists, and having an influential teaching career in Germany and the United States, Hans Hofmann began to devote himself exclusively to his own painting in 1958. Frustrated by the limits of linear perspective, he introduced his “push-and-pull” theory in order to create a more dynamic sense of space in his paintings, in which forms and colors appear to simultaneously advance and recede. In The Golden Wall, rectangles of varying sizes and colors direct the gaze across the picture. Some forms appear to float above the expressive brushstrokes that punctuate the work, while others are embedded in the background, providing the canvas with a lively sense of movement and dimension.