Where does art come from? The kind of art that covers the walls in museums, sells for record prices at auction, that emblazons the desktop wallpapers of college students? There's an idea that art springs forth in a fit of divine inspiration from the artist's mind to the canvas before him. Art, in this way of thinking, is a highly original manifestation of the artist's personal expression.So where does the art school come in? The romantic idea of the artist setting pure idea to canvas leaves out an essential element of an artist's development: teaching. Hans Hofmann, the subject of the Rose's keynote exhibition this winter, may not be quite as familiar a name to students as Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning, but as the teacher to many abstract expressionist painters including Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, his importance in art history is much more than his reputation among the American public suggests.

"Hans Hofmann: Circa 1950" fills the Rose's Lois Foster Wing, one of the museum's largest single gallery spaces. The paintings line the walls and hang on panels in the center of the room. The paintings' deceptively uninteresting arrangement (especially in contrast to the surrealism exhibit that filled the space last semester) actually serves to make the room seem quite big and overwhelming at first view.

The exhibition contains a variety of works by Hofmann, many of which have never been shown in a U.S. museum before. The exhibition centers around a 1950 project to create a series of murals for a Peruvian city under the direction of architect and city planner Josep Sert. All of Hofmann's studies for the murals are part of the Rose show, in addition to other paintings and works on paper.

Many of Hofmann's paintings fall squarely in the "my two year old could do that" category, which is why I would highly recommend this exhibition to art lovers and amateur museumgoers alike. It can sometimes be easy to dismiss abstract expressionist work as scribbles or spilled paint when viewed from a computer screen or a sheet of newspaper, but in person, the paintings take on a new light, and it immediately becomes clear that the works' colors and compositions are much more thoughtful than anything a toddler would necessarily develop for a finger-paint project.

The other two exhibitions at the Rose this winter are entitled "Saints and Sinners," an exhibition that investigates the division between material, everyday subject matter and abstract, otherworldly subject matter, and "Master of Reality," curated by studio art professor Joe Wardwell.

The rather nebulous themes found in "Saints and Sinners" may confuse some museumgoers. The art from the "Saints" portion of the show is the first thing guests see as they enter. It's clearly not a collection by a singular artist or a grouping of works from a particular genre. The "Sinners" portion, located downstairs, marks a clear break with the more ethereal work located upstairs in terms of content and may also puzzle guests as to what the connection between the two is, and whether it is part of the upstairs exhibition or something totally separate. Regardless of these issues, the art in the exhibit is a diverse and interesting collection of modern and contemporary art, with works by artists like Picasso and Philip Guston as well as video art and sculpture by more contemporary artists.

"Master of Reality" focuses on work by a group of New York-based artists that explores the themes of global culture and identity. One eye-catching piece in the show is Matthew Day Jackson's "Endless Column," a painting that recalls the Tower of Babel. The piece, like the work pictured below, matches separate planes of art like puzzle pieces to make an organic tower.

The Rose is now open on Thursdays until 8 p.m., so students interested in making a visit can do so until April 5.