Exhibitions 2
Hans Hofmann (Crane Gallery, till 31 July)
Wisdom of old men
Giles Auty
Do not let me hear Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly, Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession, Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God.
At 20 I knew large sections of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets by heart. Even now, long passages bob up quite unexpectedly in the brain. Of course, at 20 the lines quoted — from 'East Coker' — were inclined to strike an especially responsive chord, but as one grows older oneself they come to seem less profound, all of a sudden. Do most elderly artists simply grow more out of touch and unreasonable as the years go by, in the manner of the heroes of Patrick White's The Vivisector or Joyce Cary's The Horse's Mouth? I have general- ly felt isolated in my liking for the late works of Renoir, Degas and Kokoschka, although those who scorn their final efforts will almost certainly admire late Titian and late Rembrandt. In days when art was acknowledged still as being a function of hand as well as head, clearly any loss of physical faculties was inclined to be limit- ing. Oskar Kokoschka was born in 1886, so the work on show now at Marlborough Fine Art (6 Albemarle Street, W1) occu- pied him from his late sixties to early nineties. Kokoschka struck the art world first as an Oberwildling, wildest of the wild, on the occasion of the first exhibition of his work in 1908. Forty-five or even 70 years later he had still far from mellowed; his art began by looking rough and spon- taneous but became, if anything, even more so.
In 1941 Kokoschka wrote that 'The main task of democracy is to realise the universal debt of the old men to the youth of the world.' The artist discharged his imagined debt through the art course he ran for ten summers at Salzburg from 1953 to 1963. Those years were the heyday of the attempted world dominance of abstract expressionism, against which Kokoschka fought a lone or at least lonely crusade. In his view, the experience of space and light was essential not only to painting but to the enjoyment of life itself. Kokoschka's vision was at once life-affirming and stoical. He had looked into the face of death as a young soldier during the first world war, when he was seriously wounded. He did so 'again steadfastly 55 years later in his ironically titled painting 'Time, Gentlemen Please', which is part of the present memorable show. Kokoschka painted with great directness and gusto. His sense of colour was extraordinary and much more subtle than a first glance might suggest. Today young men and women try to ape the rough authenticity of expressionist art simply by imitating its mannerisms. Unfor- tunately for them, many forget that ex- pressionism involves having something worthwhile to express. Expressionism in late Kokoschka was the vehicle for an 'Lake Geneva with Steamer', 1957, by Oskar Kokoschka idiosyncratic vision acquired and honed during a long and remarkable lifetime.
By a rare chance there is another exhibi- tion in London at present of work by an artist with whom Kokoschka exhibited, if my researches are correct, exactly 80 years ago this month at the gallery of Paul Cassirer in Berlin. Hans Hofmann was six years older than Kokoschka. The former's subsequent career, attitudes and post- humous reputation as a founding father of the abstract expressionist movement in the USA provide a fascinating contrast with those of the younger painter. It is a remarkable feat on the part of Andras Kalman to have assembled over 40 works by such an influential international artist. This important exhibition takes place at Kalman's second and larger gallery at 171 Sloane Street, SW1.
While Kokoschka remained a life-long opponent of non-objective art, Hofmann is revered now for a major role in the development of abstract painting in the USA, where the artist settled for good in 1935. As a young German expatriate living in Paris, Hofmann formerly met figures credited subsequently with great bearing on the history of 20th-century painting: Picasso, Braque, Matisse and Delaunay. Forced to return to Munich by the onset of the first world war, Hofmann preserved many of Kandinsky's important early works from destruction there.
Like Kokoschka, Hofmann was an abso- lutely individualistic artist and inspired teacher and was never an integral part of any mainstream art movement. Both artists largely avoided `isms' and preserved their own individuality during long and productive careers. Their work was fuelled by hard-won experience of life. Hofmann, too, retained an extraordinary exuberance and level of production to a ripe old age. It is to the great credit of commercial galler- ies that we can see shows such as these.
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