Into Outer Space
Artist
Hans Hofmann
(American (born Germany), 1880 - 1966)
CultureAmerican
Date1957
MediumOil on panel
DimensionsOverall: 69 1/2 x 47 3/4 in. (176.5 x 121.3 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated lower right: 57;
Hans Hofmann
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.660
Collections
Not on view
DescriptionThis is an oil on panel painting. Vertically oriented, it is divided from top left to bottom right by a wide red diagonal of paint. The right side of the canvas is primarily yellow. The left is mostly sage green. On the yellow side there are two orange rectangles. On the sage green side there is a light blue rectangle and a cream white rectangle. There are large dabs of intense blue paint near the lower edge of the painting.Label TextHans Hofmann American, b. Germany, 1880–1966 Into Outer Space, 1957 Oil on board Like a rocket at liftoff, a red-hot cluster of diagonals cuts across this painting. Its raw, bold colors give the painting an explosive visual force. The nervous energy of the 1957 work and its space-age title may allude to the space race then unfolding between the United States and the Soviet Union, which launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, that same year. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.660 ProvenanceThe artist; Kootz Gallery, New York, 1958; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. purchased from Kootz Gallery, January 15, 1958; Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1970; Lent to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, 1966; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to The Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition History"Hans Hofmann: New Paintings," Kootz Gallery, New York, N.Y., January 7 - 25, 1958. [Exhibited and reviewed -- Not listed in catalog.] "Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition," Provincetown, Mass., July 1958. (Exh. cat. no. 30) "Han Hofmann," Fränkische Galerie am Marientor, Nürnberg, Germany; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, Germany; Kongreßhalle, Berlin, Germany, 1962. (Exh. cat. no. 43) "Contemporary Art USA," Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, Norfolk, Va., March 18 - April 10, 1966. (Exh. cat. 25, illustrated inside) "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. Published ReferencesRobert M. Coates, "The Art Galleries, East Meets West," _The New Yorker_ (January 18, 1958): 74. Bertina S. Manning, _Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition_, exh. cat., Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1958, 18, 70, no. 30. Clement Greenberg, _Hofmann_ (Paris: Editions Georges Fall, 1961), 51. No text, b/w ill., error in caption - dated 1937. Ludwig Grote et al., _Han Hofmann_, exh. cat., Fränkische Galerie am Marientor, Nürnberg, Germany, 1962, 21, 23, no. 43. Foreward by Foy C. Casper, Jr., _Contemporary Art USA_, exh. cat., Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, Norfolk, Va., 1966. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 218. _The Chrysler Museum: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Norfolk, Virginia_ (Norfolk: Chrysler Museum, 1982), 104. ISBN: 0-940744-37-6 Robin Laing, Producer, _Victory over Death_ [about Colin McCahon, a New Zealand painter], videocassette, 52 min., Meridian Film Productions, Wellington, New Zealand, 1988. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 214-215, no. 132. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Shelley Kruger Weisberg,_Museum Movement Techniques: How to Craft a Moving Museum Experience_ Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2006, pp. 44-45 (fig. 3.2), 47 (fig. 3.3). DVD included. ISBN: 0-7591-0825-0
