Vlastislav Hofman – Fysiognomie. Seven Hand-Colored Expressionist Linocuts, 1921

BOFMAN, Vlastislav. Fysiognomie [Physiognomies]. Stará Říše na Moravě: Josef Florian, 1921. Printed by Kryl & Scotti, Nový Jičín. 4to. Seven full-page original linocuts, individually hand-colored. Loose sheets in the original printed wrappers, as issued. Edition of 120 copies. Very good condition. No. 20c.
A superb and uncommon graphic portfolio by Vlastislav Hofman (1884–1964), one of the most original figures of Czech Cubism and Expressionism. Architect, designer, painter and graphic artist, Hofman developed an intensely personal Expressionist idiom in his works on paper, particularly in the remarkable graphic cycles produced in association with Josef Florian's legendary publishing enterprise at Stará Říše. Fysiognomie comprises seven original hand-colored linocuts, a sequence of radically stylized human figures and heads rendered in forceful black line and heightened by vivid washes of blue, yellow, ochre, pink, violet and orange. The subjects include the Madonna, Christ, a praying girl, a weeping woman, a penitent woman, a blind boy and a drowned man. Hofman's angular, compressed forms transform the human face and body into almost architectural constructions, while the hand-applied color gives each impression the character of an individual work.