It was at the age of 43 that Germaine Hoffman embarked on her artistic career. The then stay-at-home mother began enrolling in various evening and summer courses in Luxembourg in 1973, and continued with these classes until 1998, attending institutions such as the Académie européenne libre des beaux-arts (AELBA), the Lycée technique des arts et métiers (LTAM) and the Cercle européen pour la propagation des arts (CEPA).
From her earliest works in the late 1970s G. Hoffman devoted herself to collage. Inspiration and material came from daily newspapers and magazines, from which she tore pages to create figurative or abstract compositions that still retained their original format.
G. Hoffman aesthetically manipulates these newspapers and advertising revues as a way of intellectually assimilating their social and political content, restoring it to a sensitive form. The works occur within a historical and literary framework, as evidenced by their titles. This depth of field allows the artist to offer a wide regard on the contemporary world, its excesses and violence, and the condition of women within it.

G. Hoffman presented her work to the public for the first time in 1984 at the Théâtre de la Ville in Luxembourg, as part of the annual salon organised by the Cercle artistique de Luxeumbourg (CAL). In 1986 she held her first solo exhibition at the Galerie Simoncini in Luxembourg.

As the artist’s technique evolved, her works became more experimental. In 1990 she presented a collection of abstract landscapes, formal constructions and anthropomorphic silhouettes at Cespel Galéria in Budapest. Some were strictly collages, while others had texture and stood out in relief. Torn pieces of paper were enhanced with colour, and the process of superposition was mirrored by gestures of subtraction through rubbing or scraping.

G. Hoffman’s solo exhibition at the municipal art gallery in Esch-sur-Alzette in 1996 confirmed this materialogical development. The works on display played with blending, opacities and transparencies. New processes were visible: as well as paint, varnish was applied in several layers onto wooden panels which were then sanded.

The work also became more poetic and participatory. As part of the Luxembourg année culturelle in 1995, G. Hoffman encouraged visitors to express themselves with felt tip pens on large black or white waxed canvases. Her interest in language and writing continued. In 1997 she exhibited collages and panels of graffiti at the Centre culturel Marcel Noppeney in Differdange.

Over the course of the following decades, G. Hoffman further pursued her exploration of materials and techniques, while remaining faithful to the spirit of collage-assemblage. She worked with new materials, including waxed canvas, as well as upholstery fabrics and even furniture. Words, phrases and doodles appeared across her expressive compositions, sometimes in spray paint.

In 2020 the Casino Luxembourg organised a retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work, which revealed its experimental quality, its diversity and its coherence. Furthermore, the scale of the gallery space allowed the artist to present her pieces in the form of installations, demonstrating her mastery not only of smaller formats but of larger ensembles.