Quotation by

Hans Hofmann

Color is a plastic means of creating intervals... color harmonics produced by special relationships, or tensions. We differentiate now between formal tensions and color tensions, just as we differentiate in music between counterpoint and harmony.

Hans Hofmann

Music

Understanding this quote AI Analysis

Hans Hofmann is comparing color in art to musical elements, saying that color creates spaces or gaps through its relationships, much like intervals in music. He distinguishes between structural contrasts (formal tensions) and the emotional or sensory effects of color (color tensions), similar to how music separates counterpoint from harmony.

More by this author

All quotes by Hans Hofmann →

More quotes about Music

See all →

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

If music be the food of love, play on.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessi…

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.