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After completing his studies in Poland, Hofman returned to Kraków. His first showing was at an exhibition sponsored by the Sztuka Society (1902). Sztuka means art in Polish. It was a group of Polish artists at the turn-of-the 20th century (fin-de-siècle era) active in the areas with Polish ethnic populations within the Austrian, German, and Russian Empires. It was an artistic society with political overtones. They wanted to showcase the importance and unique character of Polish contemporary art even though the Polish state did not exist. [Cavanaugh] He then exhibited un the cosmoisipolitan world of pre-World War I fin-de-siècle era. He exhibited in Munich, Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, and Warsaw. An important subject for him was Polish village/peasant) Madonnas. His first was painted (1904). Here we see a 1910 example (figure 1). He also began a series of paintings known as 'Confession'. It was these paintings that attracted the attention of the international art community. He was the first Polish artist to be made a member of the Gallery of the Vienna Secession (1907). Which tell you something about the prospects of Polish artists in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He maintauned ciontacts to his oild professor, Jacek Malczewski. When Malczewski became Rector of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts (1912, Hofman began teaching there. With the outbreak of World War I (1914), Poland became a battleground. Hofman moved to Prague and then Paris.
Cavanaugh, Jan. Out looking in: Early modern Polisha art, 1890–1918 (University of California Press: 2000).
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