Still Life - Table with Vases and Cupboard

Hans Hofmann was an influential teacher in both his native Germany and in the United States, where he spent the last decades of his life. His paintings, and those of his students’ (including painters Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell), had a significant impact on the post-World War II abstraction movement in American art.

Hofmann believed in the spiritual power of art, using bright color as a means of expression. In this work, strong composition and an active painted surface reveal a still life of the act of painting a still life.

On May 14, 2018, the Head of Curatorial Affairs, Merry Scully discovered that Still Life - Table with Vases and Cupboard (2016.11) had sustained damage to the surface of the painting in the form of a round piece of pigment detaching completely away from the support. When the damage was noticed, the section that detached could not be found. This loss of the painted surface happened while in storage and had recently occurred. Photos were taken on the day of discovery to document the damage.

On May 22, 2018 fragments of the portion of loss were found on the floor and channels of painting racks in Collections Storage. The fragments were collected and are now stored in the accession file.