His impact as a teacher is still palpable today, as his theories of the “push and pull” of color and of breaking up the picture plane are still being disseminated by art teachers all over the world.

It wasn’t until late in Hofmann’s career that his reputation as an artist finally began to catch up with his reputation as a teacher. At the age of 64, Hofmann’s first exhibition in New York was organized by Peggy Guggenheim and held at the Art of This Century Gallery. In 1949 he returned to Paris for the opening of his exhibition at the Galerie Maeght. During his visit, he returned to the studios of his contemporaries, Picasso, Braque, Brancusi and Miro. In 1955, Clement Greenberg organized a retrospective of Hofmann’s work at Bennington College, and in 1957 there was a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum in New York.

In spite of his growing recognition as a painter, it wasn’t until 1958, at the age of 78, that Hofmann was finally able to resign as a teacher and (continued)