Lower right: "51 / hans hofmann"
Verso upper right: "Composition No.2 / hans hofmann 1951"
Estate no. M-0161

German-born American painter Hans Hofmann is regarded as one of the foremost Abstract Expressionist painters and teachers, who influenced generations of Abstract Expressionist over the years. Hofmann's approached painting with questions of pictorial structure, unity, color, and spatial composition. According to Hofmann, "making a picture is almost a physical struggle." Composition #2 reveals Hofmann's preference in working with larger canvases; comprising of several elements suspended against a bright yellow background, the work is an exploration of pictorial phenomena that emerges from the interaction between form and color within the ground of the painting. Hofmann went on to influence Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, Frank Stella, and many other established artists during the course of his career.