DOCUMENTARY INTRODUCTION
This first-ever documentary celebrates and commemorates the provocative work of the of the Neo-Expressionist artist and AIDS activist Richard Hofmann, a well-known figure in the East Village art scene of the 1980’s.
A ceaseless and prolific painter, the art of Richard Hofmann (b. 1954 – d. 1994) provides an unflinching window onto the tragic world of the young gay artist caught up in the AIDS epidemic which devastated New York just at the time as this unprecedented art scene was blossoming.
Centered around a solo retrospective of the late artist mounted by the Brooklyn Waterfront Arts Coalition in 2017, the documentary unfolds a series of interviews with curators, scholars, and former friends.
Educated at the Pratt Institute, his style has often been characterized as owing to the school of Neo-Expressionism, but his unique use of distorted figures and a multiplicity of baleful human faces is nowhere to be found except in his own work.
One critic noted that Hofmann “tackled the larger questions of sin and redemption, religion and homosexuality, suffering and ecstasy with fervid brushstrokes and layers of intense color.”
In addition to his monumental 9 x 15 canvases, he painted on everything from surfboards to packing crates, and produced murals which decorated such historic 80’s clubs as The Pyramid, Limbo Lounge, Danceteria, The Roxy and The Saint.
A contemporary and personal friend of David Wojnarowicz and many other artists who suffered the same fate, Hofmann’s work is a rare time-capsule whose bold colors and iconoclastic themes leap off the canvas perhaps even more today than back then.
The documentary short was co-produced by my colleague Brian McCormick along with Artabolic Arts Management and director David Ambrose.
It was first presented in person at the Mystic Film Festival in October of 2021. It was also selected as semi-finalist in two categories of the London-based Lonely Wolf 2022 International Film Festival for both Queer Film and Documentary Short. Finally, it won two nominations in the 2023 Tokyo-based Sensei film festival for the categories of Best Short Documentary and Best Performative Documentary.
