$140,000
Estimate: $150,000 - $250,000
18 Works from the Bachman Collection
Auction: June 4, 2018 1:00:00 PM EDT
Signed bottom right, oil on panel.
Executed circa 1942.
35 1/2 x 41 1/2 in. (90.2 x 105.4cm)
Provenance: The Artist.
The Collection of Clement Greenberg.
Noah Goldowsky Gallery, New York, New York.
Private Collection, Dayton, Ohio.
Sotheby's, New York, "Contemporary Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture," November 9, 1983, lot 43.
Private Collection.
Christie's, New York, "Contemporary Art," February 8, 1986, lot 101.
The Estate of Lee & Gilbert Bachman, Atlanta, Georgia & Boca Raton, Florida (acquired directly from the above sale).
LITERATURE:
Suzi Villiger, Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Volume II: Catalogue Entries P1-P846 (1901-1951), Burlington: Lund Humphries, 2014, catalogue no. P436 (illustrated).
No matter the variety of directions Hofmann pursued over the course of his career, the artist never relinquished the Cubist and Fauvist principles instilled in him during his youth in Paris. Ever-inspired by the color palette and heavy brushwork of the Fauves, as well as the Cubist geometric design, Hofmann was occupied, almost since the start of his career, with the various ways in which he could combine these seemingly disparate elements into single compositions. Composed of brilliant colors and cleanly-edged planes, Composition No. 43 is a clear example of his mastery of both styles and his success in coherently synthesizing the two. Indeed for Hofmann, "form only exists through color and color only exists through form" (Hofmann, "Creation in Form and Color," preface).
It was shortly before Composition No. 43 was executed that influential art critic Clement Greenberg was introduced to the teachings of Hans Hofmann. From the beginning, Hofmann was a formative influence on Greenberg and his treatises on modern art. Especially impactful was a series of lectures delivered by the artist in 1938 and 1939, which were crucial to Greenberg's understanding of abstract art. As Caroline Jones notes in her biography of Greenberg, "the aspiring critic's heroes, saints and devils had largely been literary, political, and philosophical until Hofmann. Hofmann's painting and teaching provided a launch pad into visual art for Greenberg…" (C. Jones, Eyesight Alone: p. 176).
As a result, Greenberg was one of Hofmann's greatest champions and over the next 25 years, positioned him at the apex of the Abstract Expressionist movement. In an essay written about the artist in 1961, Greenberg reflects upon the range and variety present in Hofmann's work, stating "his name continues to be the one that springs to mind when we ask who, among all other painters in this country, deserves most to be called a master in the full sense of the word" (Greenberg, Hans Hofmann, p. 129). Clement Greenberg was one of the original owners of Composition No. 43, which was likely given to him during the artist's lifetime. 152 other works from Greenberg's collection now reside in the Portland Museum of Art.