Armin Hansen

Armin Carl Hansen (1886-1957) sought to capture the raw power and vitality of the Pacific and those who sailed it, rather than the beauty of the ocean's light and color for its own sake. Although the San Francisco native at times painted lush still lifes, spirited rodeo scenes, and loosely rendered landscapes, his signature subjects were fisherfolk and the sea. Often described as Impressionist, Hansen's art departed from the calm beauty that characterized the style, even though he used...
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Armin Carl Hansen (1886-1957) sought to capture the raw power and vitality of the Pacific and those who sailed it, rather than the beauty of the ocean's light and color for its own sake. Although the San Francisco native at times painted lush still lifes, spirited rodeo scenes, and loosely rendered landscapes, his signature subjects were fisherfolk and the sea. Often described as Impressionist, Hansen's art departed from the calm beauty that characterized the style, even though he used bold colors and, at times, broken brushstrokes. For the most part, Hansen rejected Impressionism's gentility to focus on humanity's symbiotic relationship with nature. He did so with masses of color, dynamic compositions, and the elimination of superfluous detail. At heart a storyteller, Hansen sought subjects that were broadly consequential, depicting scenes, characters, and activities specific to the Monterey Bay region but that conveyed universal themes of physical labor, hardship, danger, bravery, and loss. He rendered these scenes in oil, on the etching plate, and in watercolor, charcoal, and pastel. Celebrated especially as an etcher, Hansen earned a reputation as one of America's finest practitioners of the medium, which on a national level surpassed his renown as one of California's preeminent painters. Released in conjunction with the exhibition organized by the Pasadena Museum of California Art in collaboration with the Crocker Art Museum, Armin Hansen:The Artful Voyage presents over two hundred reproductions and photographs, as well as a detailed biography and chronology, depicting Hansen's artistic legacy and his love for Monterey's fishermen and the setting in which they worked.