EDUARDO HOFFMANN

November 28, 2024 l Brussels, BELGIUM

Curatorial text

Poème infini, Eduardo Hoffman

Allpa Contemporary Art (Brussels)

Poème infini is the title of this exhibition by the Argentinean artist Eduardo Hoffmann, an epigraph that also functions as a key to access the poetic immensity of his entire career. The distribution of his small and medium-sized images dot the walls of this space following a structure or concatenation of images in the manner of verses, alternating word and silence, rhythm and cadence. An endless visual poem that has not been written to delay or avoid its end but to prolong its journey and intensify its effect and pleasure in a continuum. Poem as an open, flexible verb, a perfect medium that allows us to observe that self-sufficient dimension of visual abstraction, a verb within the reach of sight. In this inner, everyday territory, Hoffmann's painting is aligned with the reading of the long sonnets. His images replace the exercise of speculation with contemplation through the endless and insightful juxtaposition of pictorial elements. The works, made in a mixed technique on a double surface of canvas and mylar, explore the image as if exploring a new landscape in all its dimensions. Playing at the edge between the concrete and the unknown, stone and air, elevation and the abyssal. And physically traversing the saturated planes and stratified stains, colour gives unity and meaning because the art of this Argentinean artist rests on its own abstract quality, there where the poetic action.

Eduardo Hoffmann (Mendoza 1957) began painting at a very young age, which led him to study at the Faculty of Arts of the National University of Cuyo with Zravko Ducmelic. In 1978 he won his first prize at the Salón de la Vendimia in his province and in 1981 he won the Pio Collivadino Prize for under-21s at the Salón Nacional. Since the 1980s, Hoffmann has lived and worked in different parts of the world, from Brazil to Spain, Germany and France. For a time he settled in Paris, in Julio Le Parc's studio. In 1986 he took part in the 2nd Havana Biennial and the Venice Biennale. Shortly afterwards he was awarded the 1st Movado Prize for the Young Generation (1988), the 1st Prize of the Fortabat Foundation and the Antorchas Scholarship for Established Artists (1991). During this same period, a monograph on his work was published with a text by Jorge Glusberg and the Argentinean Critics Association awarded him the prestigious Leonardo Artist of the Year Award (1998). His extraordinary contribution to the Argentinian pictorial renovation and all the mentioned recognitions make Eduardo Hoffmann a great referent of contemporary Latin American creation. Since then, the artist has participated continuously in the main international art fairs: FIAC, Paris; ArtBasel, Basel; Art Chicago, Chicago; Art Miami, Miami; ArteBA Buenos Aires; ARCO Madrid; Beirut Art Fair, Lebanon; Sotheby ́s Latin American Pain Painting, Phillips de Pury & Company Auction. Nueva York, Tiroche de Leon Collection, among others.

Reyes Abad Flores