Wolf Hoffmann

(1888-1962)

Wolf Hoffmann was born in Wernigerode in 1898 and was a German painter and etcher. He attended the Prussian Cadet School and was a soldier in France during World War I. Hoffmann studied architecture at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin-Charlottenburg, but turned to painting and printmaking. During the Second World War, almost all of his works were destroyed by acts of war. Hoffmann was married to the actress Karin Evans since 1931. Wolf Hoffmann died in 1979. He left behind numerous works, primarily with landscapes, figurative or floral depictions, etchings as well as some woodcuts and linocuts.

„I’ve lived as a painter in Berlin for 45 years. Since then, a lot of water has flowed down the Spree, lots of ‚big‘ and small names, lots of art views, lots of noise and lots of hope. There was the great time of 1920-1933, When Berlin was a real and free art city, when the public was still attending exhibitions and the painters hadn’t yet invented publicity. There was the ’12-year Reich‘ that eradicated art. And there was the laborious restart after 1945. When I Around 1925, when I was a beginner, I plunged into the lively art life with no worries: First exhibition in the jury-free room, which was very turbulent at the time. In 1927 I managed for the first time to conquer a wall space in the academy on Pariser Platz, where Liebermann ran a strict regiment Many young exhibitions were made and supported by critics (Paul Westheim). Paul Cassirer showed three generations in two beautiful exhibitions, I was one of the youngest. My first collection The exhibition was in the Möller Gallery in 1928, after which I was given a master’s atelier at the ‚Akademie der Künste‘ for three years. In the printing workshop on Steinplatz I learned the handcraft of etching on the same press that I still use to turn the plates at our university today. Further exhibitions followed, again at Möller in 1931, etchings in the Gurlitt Gallery in 1932, in the Szczecin Museum, whose director Riezler acquired several pictures that were destroyed during the Nazi era. The Kronprinzenpalais had also bought a picture and the Kupferstichkabinett some etchings. It all went on and then, at one stroke, it was over. In 1934 all free, progressive exhibitions were closed and the associations liquidated (artists‘ association, secession). No more painting. I learned ceramics and painted tiles and tiled stoves; the war ended this way out too, since I had to be a soldier for four years. After the battle for Berlin, I crawled out of the rubble and saw the studio house on Kurfürstenstrasse with the pictures, plates and all belongings burning down. Everything went on. The first art exhibition, which Berlin held in 1945, was a sign of reflection. The student gallery, at that time in a Zehlendorf garden villa, showed my first post-war pictures in 1948. 1949 Foundation of the ‚New Group‘. I started to erase again. Since 1950 I have been leading the resurrected workshop for etching at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin and since 1951 a class for free graphics. Later I introduced screen printing as a supplement. It has continued since then; Berlin has become different, and art is also different. It is produced more than ever, optimistic and lively. „- Wolf Hoffmann

in: Galerie Gerda Bassenge, Wolf Hoffmann. Oil paintings, color etchings, watercolors 1962/63, exhib. Cat., Berlin 1964.

Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Hoffmann_(Maler)

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