German-born Hans Hofmann came to the United States in 1930 to teach a summer session at the University of California, Berkeley. With the rise of fascism in his native country, Hofmann, like many fellow European artists, decided to remain in the United States. He established an art school in New York City where he taught a generation of Americans who would later become associated with the Abstract Expressionist art movement. His painting reveals an interest in the competing forces of accident and plan, an interest shared by later Abstract Expressionists. The title, Visione Nobilissima, (The Noblest Vision) refers to a ballet suite by the German composer Paul Hindemith.