Hans Hofmann papers, circa 1904-2011

Series contains interviews with former students of Hans Hofmann conducted by Tina Dickey between 1991 and 2000. All interviews are documented in transcripts, and sound recordings are also present for ten of the interviews and the panel discussion on 17 sound cassettes. Subjects include Virginia Admiral, Nieves Billmyer, Jeanne Bultman, Nicholas Carone, Robert De Niro, Sr., James Gahagan, Peggy Huck, Ken Jacobs, Wolf Kahn, Lillian Kiesler, Allen Leepa, Mercedes Matter, Barbara L. Michaels, Maud Morgan, Lillian Orlowsky, Haynes Ownby, Philip Pavia, Vita Peterson, Earl Pierce, Joseph F. Plaskett, Marion Ranyak, Paul Resika, Robert Richenburg, Peter Ruthenberg, Leatrice Rose, Douglas Sheer, Max Spoerri, Yvonne Thomas, Selina Trieff, and Robert Henry. The interviewees discuss the composition of the student body over the years, the evolution of Hofmann's ideas, the artists he studied, why he was an outstanding pedagogue, Hofmann's studio in Provincetown and the atmosphere of his classes on West 8th St. The interviewees recall, among many others, Lee Krasner, Josef Albers, Jan Matulka, George McNeil, Alice Hodges, Fritz Bultman, Tony Smith, Barnett Newman, Weldon Kees, Stuart Davis, Larry Rivers, Clyfford Still, and Thomas B. Hess.

The panel discussion, "Forum 2000: Hans Hofmann, the Painter," held at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum 2000 August 15, was moderated by Dickey and included artists and former students of Hofmann. Dickey's research on students registered at the Hofmann schools is in the form of computerized printouts of data Dickey compiled on 1,930 Hofmann students, 1918-1958, sorted alphabetically by name, and chronologically by course term. Dickey stresses in a note on the student registries that this data came from a variety of sources and may not be reliable or comprehensive.

Correspondence relates to Madeline Amgott's video productions and includes permissions agreements, contracts for production, and research correspondence.

Production materials include video recordings, sound recordings, transcripts, notes, documentary scripts, various video and sound edits, and other production elements created in the course of the production of Madeline Amgott's two documentaries, (1999), and (2002). Video interviews and location footage form the bulk of the series and include unedited video recordings shot for the two productions. Some of the interviews were initially shot for the first video documentary and re-used in the later, longer documentary. Content includes interviews, mainly with artists who were students of Hofmann, but also his nephew, Theo Hofmann, and curators and art historians, including Lowery Sims, Richard Wollheim, and Xavier Javier Costa. Location footage includes Barcelona, Spain; Berkeley, California; Cape Cod and Provincetown, Massachusetts; New York City; and Munich, Germany. New York locations include the New York Studio School, the Metropolitan Museum, and the locations of Hofmann's two mosaic murals. Subjects interviewed on location are not always listed on the videocassette label, but names of subjects are listed in a note in the folder list when known.

Most camera original material appears to be in BetacamSP (31 videocassettes) or Digital Betacam (2 videocassettes) format, with VHS (71 videocassettes) and in some cases sound cassette copies (34 sound cassettes) created for transcription and editing. Some of the video footage is only found in VHS format, presumed to be duplicates of camera original not found in the collection. Also found are production tapes and edits on 14 videocassettes (8 VHS, 5 BetacamSP, 1 DVCPro), in digital format, and 3 sound cassettes (2 standard cassettes and one DAT), including various photographs, artwork stills, stock footage, voiceover recordings, sound edits, rough video edits, master edits, and the Spanish version of .

Most interviews have full or partial transcripts, which are arranged with the recorded video. Additional paper records in the series include transcripts compiled into log books, documentary scripts in English and Spanish, and sound recordings and transcripts of a lecture and panel discussion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1999.

Series contains materials collected during the production of the two Hofmann documentaries from a variety of sources. Photocopies of archival materials from various archival collections are found, along with recorded interviews, writings, printed material, photographs, video and sound recordings (on 5 sound tape reels, 9 sound cassettes, 11 VHS videocassettes, and 5 BetacamSP videocassettes), and 13 motion picture film reels (three 16mm and ten 8mm). A large amount of material documenting Hans Hofmann is found, with smaller files related to family members and associates. Much of the material in the series is copied from their original sources, which are not in the collection and not always identified, but some original material is also found throughout the series.

Among the video, sound and film footage in the series are home movies of Hofmann shot in New York City, Provincetown, Berkeley, and on vacation with Renate Hofmann. Other film found in the collection includes footage of the Hofmann school from 1950 and around 1960, a short documentary about Hofmann in Provincetown which is uncredited, and a documentary by Walter Forma entitled "The Americans: Three East Coast Artists at Work" (1963), which contains a segment on Hofmann. Sound recordings include interviews copied from other collections of Hofmann and associates, an interview with Maria Hofmann by Dorothy Seckler, and a personal sound recording made by Renate Hofmann. Other interviews and lectures in the series, copied from the Archives of American Art and other sources, include Ray Eames, John Haley, Harold Rosenberg, Ludwig Sander, Myron Stout, and Glenn Wessels.