Uno Hoffmann was born in Canada in 1955, and raised in
Stockholm, Sweden as a child. He studied architecture at the University of
Toronto, which I think shows through in his later pieces. He began his painting
career before he studied architecture, and had his first major solo exhibition
at the Museum of Modern Art (Museu Gulbenkian) when he was 24 years old.
Uno’s
first exhibition pieces are very different to his more recent pieces that I
have looked at. His first two pieces use charcoal and pastel whereas now he
mainly uses acrylic and pen. I think it’s very clear that he hadn’t been
inspired by architecture yet.
Poetry and writing seems to be a big influence to Hoffmann. Many of his works are based on a response to different pieces of writing or poetry. I have an interest in writing and reading, I took English Literature and therefore could use some of the books I have read as influence for my Art work.
This
particular piece was inspired by a book called War Music written by British
poet Christopher Logue. Hoffman has taken a part of a page in the book and put
it into this piece. He has also painted the word ‘War’ multiple times and it
makes the piece look quite angry. He has also created a red line across the
page which to me looks like blood which could represent the blood spilled by
war.
A lot of his more recent pieces contain a lot of straight
lines and geometric shapes which could be influenced by his studies of
architecture. He also creates a lot of words and scribbles which could be
influenced by writing.
Uno
Mainly uses acrylic to create his pieces and generally uses pen over the top
for white marks, he seems to use chalk. He sometimes includes photos in his
work which he paints and draws over the top of. He uses pages from books when
influenced by a certain piece of writing. In a lot of his work there are a lot
of brown and red tones along with black and white.
His work contains a lot of contrast. He does this by having
a main colour and then generally putting red and black lines/squares over the
top. He sometimes uses other colours but his pieces mostly use red. In his
newest pieces, he has seemed to stray away from that and now uses many
different colours. In his work he sometimes uses the technique of dry brushing
to get less ridged shapes. He also varies his brush strokes to get different
textures. He also seems to use different materials and fabric to create texture
and different layers. As well as this, he uses different amounts of water to
create more transparent or more opaque marks. This creates more contrast.
Uno’s work really interests me because of his continuing
references to poetry and literature. Reading is a big influence in my life and
I think it really links to who I am. Uno also seems to be influenced a lot by
Greek history and mythology, which I was very interested in as a child.
This is the main piece I have been
studying; its named “Orpheus and Eurydice in the underworld” which is part of
Greek Mythology. It contains most of the techniques that Uno uses throughout
his work which is why I am looking at it. Its 23x48cm so isn’t very big, this
means I can use pen on pieces like this and not have to look for a thicker
medium. In this piece Uno has painted a vague silhouette of a figure which
isn’t something that I have looked at that he does yet. This isn’t one of his
most recent pieces but still isn’t too old of a piece. It was done 2009. In
this piece, he has used fabric/paper to create layers and texture. He has also
used charcoal in places instead of pen to create a less defined mark. 
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