push and pull. Nor is depth created by tonal gradation (another doctrine of the academician which, at its culmination, degraded the use of color to a mere function of expressing dark and light)." - Meaning and context.">
'Search for the Real in the Visual Arts', p. 44
“

Depth, in a pictorial, plastic sense, is not created by the arrangement of objects one after another toward a vanishing point, in the sense of the Renaissance perspective, but on the contrary (and in absolute denial of this doctrine) by the creation of forces in the sense of push and pull. Nor is depth created by tonal gradation (another doctrine of the academician which, at its culmination, degraded the use of color to a mere function of expressing dark and light).

— Hans Hofmann

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Depth, in a pictorial, plastic sense, is not created by the arrangement of objects one after another toward a vanishing point, in the sense of the Renaissance perspective, but on the contrary (and in absolute denial of this doctrine) by the creation of forces in the sense of push and pull. Nor is depth created by tonal gradation (another doctrine of the academician which, at its culmination, degraded the use of color to a mere function of expressing dark and light)." in the context of "'Search for the Real in the Visual Arts', p. 44" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Hans Hofmann" (Quotes, 1940s, Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948): Quotes from: Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948) by Hans Hofmann, ed. Sara T. Weeks and Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. Addison Gallery of American Art; (using M.I.T. Press edition (1967); (Partial online PDF)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Hans Hofmann

About Hans Hofmann

Hans Hofmann (21 March 1880 – 17 February 1966) was one of the older abstract expressionist painters working in New York. Hofmann originally came from Germany where he experienced the new art and so he connected European with modern American abstract art. He had strong influence as an art-teacher and writer on the younger American abstract artists after 1940.