“Hofmann's ability to handle paint, to fuse the action of painting and drawing into a single, immediate gesture, carried colored pigment into the viewer's presence with the force of a bomb. . . . Hofmann's genius lay in his ability to expand our dimensional experience of the pictorial surface.”—Frank Stella, 1999
Going back in time to study with one of the most influential teachers of modern art would require a time machine and I am afraid that we haven't built one yet. But the next best thing is right here in the Bay Area. UC Berkeley has a huge collection of Hoffman paintings and almost always has one gallery exhibiting work.
After all, the Berkeley Art Museum was founded in 1963 by following the donation to the university of forty-five paintings and $250,000 from artist and teacher Hans Hofmann. Their on-line data base also has a large number of Hoffman images; the archive is not very searchable but the images are fairly large and the captions are comprehensive.
on line links:
http://nbmaa.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/interactive-resources-for-the-provincetown-fan/#more-2292
Games, videos and other resources:
http://nbmaa.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/interactive-resources-for-the-provincetown-fan/#more-229
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/hofmann2008
images from the Berkeley Art Museum archive.
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