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The general misunderstanding of a work of art is often due to the fact that the key to its spiritual content and technical means is missed. Unless the observer is trained to a certain degree in the artistic idiom, he is apt to search for things which have little to do with the aesthetic content of a picture. He is likely to look for pure representational values when the emphasis is really upon music-like relationships.

— Hans Hofmann Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)

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More quotes by Hans Hofmann

Every art expression is rooted fundamentally in the personality and temperament of the artist.

To sense the invisible and to be able to create it — that is art.

In nature, light creates the color; in the picture, color creates light. Every color shade emanates a very characteristic light — no substitute is possible.

Art is something absolute, something positive, which gives power just as food gives power.
While creative science is a mental food, art is the satisfaction of the soul.

Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)

It makes no difference whether a work is naturalistic or abstract; every visual expression follows the same fundamental laws.

Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Hans Hofmann (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.