From Science to art

Hanspeter Hofmann is a Swiss artist who lives in Basel. On Thursday he explained his work and his quite unique path to becoming an artist.

Hofmann did not train as an artist. His interest in art has always been self generated, leading to a quite different approach and way of thinking from many others. Initially he trained and worked in the natural sciences, and also studied and taught philosophy and aesthetics. The strict conditions of the scientific laboratory led him to consider how art could function under such conditions. His choice of painting as a medium was in part driven by the idea that it was less institutionalised - that he could work alone in a studio; although he now admits he was naive to believe he could work without others.

The development from the scientific to the artistic has defined his work. But it has not been an absolute change, as his backgound continues to give character and direction to the way he approaches the process of cultural production. Many of his paintings draw on patterns found in the natural world. There is also a sense of evolution: often he takes structures form earlier works and develops them in new pieces. His interest in the “human” perhaps summarises his journey: in the beginning he saw the human as a subject, then as an object, and now as a project. This transition from science to art underlies his original approach.