WSU Professor and Northwest Artist Hofmeister’s Works on Display at WSU Museum of Art

PULLMAN, Wash.–The Museum of Art at Washington State University will display a number of works by Andrew Ludwig Hofmeister from the museum’s permanent collection during the Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition, which runs through Sept. 22.  

Longtime Northwest painter and WSU arts professor, Hofmeister died of complications from diabetes Sept. 1, at Olympia Manor Nursing Home in Olympia, Wash. He was 94-years-old.

Born Feb. 16, 1913 in Kulm North Dakota, and raised on a farmstead near Ingomar, Mont., Hofmeister became interested in art at an early age. He spent 32-years at WSU starting in 1947, earning his master’s in Fine Arts and continuing on as a professor with the Fine Arts department. 

During much of his tenure, Hofmeister’s work centered around ink-and-watercolor compositions inspired by a cracked mirror he found hanging in a cabin in Oregon. Following retirement and serious illness in 1978, Hofmeister withdrew from the competitive art world and began experimenting with acrylics and collages, acquiring new color and vigor in his works.

According to a press release by Jon Hofmeister, son of Hofmeister, in obscurity, he produced what some regard as his definitive pieces, an interesting blend of abstract and representational elements inspired by music, poetry, landscapes and memories. 

Occasionally Hofmeister participated in museum and art gallery shows and continued to paint until a few weeks prior to his passing. A retrospective exhibition of Hofmeister’s work appeared recently at the Karin Clarke Gallery in Eugene, Ore. His work is in numerous public and private collections.

The Museum of Art is located on Wilson Road across from Martin Stadium in the Fine Arts Center on the WSU campus.  Summer Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday.     

www.wsu.edu/artmuse