Page 43 - Studio International - June 1974

despaired of it . . . At the end of his life and at
the height of his capacity, Cezanne understood
colour as a force of push and pull. In his pictures
he created an enormous sense of volume,
breathing, pulsating, expanding, contracting,
through his use of colour. His watercolours were
forever exercises in this direction. Only very
great painting becomes so plastically sensitive,
for the expression of the deepest in man calls for
unexpected and surprising associations.'
Hofmann's 'push and pull' has become part of
the hackneyed vocabulary of art theory and
discussion. Few realize the far-reaching
significance of his conception of pictorial
dynamic, and its pedigree for past and future.
Darby Barnard's essay 'Hofmann's
Rectangles'4 expands discussion of the depth
problem : 'The concentration of most painters
goes from the brain, hits the canvas and spreads,
solving things laterally, so to speak. But
Hofmann seems to use the canvas as a
trampoline, to bounce the painting right back to
the viewer. His paintings are always fresh, eager,
willing to meet us halfway. It is a positive art.
I think this spiritual impetus became
tangible as the rectangles lifted off the rather
ambiguous side by side space of Radiant Space,
to float in front of the picture plane . . . The
illusion of another plane is evident and
straightforward, the whole arena of activity is
pulled together and rendered more intimate by
the box-like illusion of space in depth. Unlike
the partly actual open space of Radiant Space,
that of the floating rectangle paintings is
all illusion because it is all frontal. All this
provides increased relational opportunity for
colour. The rectangles were not compositionally
committed because their spatial duties were in
terms of shape rather than placement. The
space rules of the Hofmann picture are very
Matisse L'Espagnole aux Fleurs c. 1923. Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in. Marlborough Gallery, Zürich permissive and allow colour every freedom of
problem'. I am assuming some familiarity with a life of its own . . . combination. Ave Maria 1965 sports a green
with the paintings of Hofmann and Noland, The work of art is firmly established as an rectangle completely immersed in a blackish-
of whom more later, on the basis of reproduction independent object: this makes it a picture.' red "mess" of a background. The two colours
or travel, since those worthy custodians of the `Plasticity means to bring the picture surface to are of very similar value but are complementary
nation's aesthetic hygiene, the Tate and the "automatic" plastic response. The picture hues and of different saturations. This produces
Hayward, have seen fit that though many an surface answers every plastic animation a super-concentrated glimmering slow-burn
anaemic pastiche may grace the cellars, we "automatically" with an aesthetic effect. Above it is a bright reddish-yellow of a
shall not profit by a glimpse of the originals.3 equivalent in the opposite direction of very differ ent value from the background which
As an hors-d'oeuvre, here are two extracts the received impulse. Push answers it cuts across; it jumps out as much as the green
from Hofmann's 'Five Essays' : with the corresponding of pull, and pull sinks in. It is a brilliant bit of colour-play. . . .
`Your two lines carry multi-meanings. correspondingly with push. A plastic animation The rectangles free value from the service of
They move in relation to each other. "into the depth" is answered with a radar-like space. This is one of the revolutionary things
They have tension in themselves. "echo" out of the depth, and vice versa. hidden deep in Hofmann's superbly balanced
They express active mutual forces Impulse and echo establish two dimensionality style. Cubism traditionally employs light-dark
This makes them into a living unit. with an added dynamic enlivenment of created difference to induce an illusion of depth in
The position of this unit bears a definite breathing depth. The depth problem is one of the space. By chaining down one of the coordinates
relation to the entire paper. most controversial problems in pictorial creation . . of colour, the others are stifled. But the
This in turn creates tensions of a still higher Only a few great painters in history have rectangles achieve a very strong illusion of
order. understood how to approach or proceed in this depth by the device of totally frontal
Visual and spiritual movements are seemingly two-fold concept. I emphasize superimposition which uses all the simple
simultaneously expressed in these tensions. `seemingly' because this double, or, to say it elements of painting — one does not pin down
They change the meaning of your paper as it more correctly, this multi-problem characterizes the other. The freeing of value was the freeing of
defines and embodies space. the very nature of painting. colour.'
Space must be vital and active — a force-impelled `. . . Throughout his life, Cezanne struggled for No clearer description of plasticity can be
pictorial space, presented as a unified entity, a synthesis. Renoir mastered it to a high degree offered. Within the limits of his style, Hofmann

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