Four on the Beach
This conversation is connected to Four on the Beach.
Four abstracted figures sit closely together on a white cloth, their backs turned to the viewer as they face a flat, greenish-yellow expanse. The composition is built through broad, highly visible brushstrokes, reducing the human forms to solid geometric blocks of earthy red, muted pink, and deep brown. Hofer completely abandons traditional modeling, instead using raw, unblended color to separate the figures—such as the stark red garment on the second figure and the thick, dark green contour line defining the back of the figure on the far left. The German Expressionist Karl Hofer was known for this monumental, architectural approach to the human body. Even after his career was severely disrupted when the Nazi regime confiscated his work and labeled it "degenerate," he continued to explore these structural, isolated figures, prioritizing physical weight and formal composition over narrative detail.