Gerhard Hoehme

Gerhard Hoehme was born in 1920 in Greppin, near Bitterfeld, Germany. He served as a fighter pilot in the Second World War. In 1948 Hoehme began studying graphics at the Kunsthochschule Burg Giebichstein, an art academy in a castle in Halle an der Saale. In 1951 he moved to Düsseldorf, where he studied from 1952 onwards at the art academy under the graphic artist Otto Coester. The German art historian Jean-Pierre Wilhelm urged Hoehme to go to Paris, where he acquired a circle of friends that included such artists as Jean Fautrier and Jean Dubuffet and the poet Paul Celan. In the 1950s Hoehme was a leading representative of Art Informel, and he headed the Düsseldorf artists’ union Gruppe 53. In 1954 he was awarded a career grant from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. His first major solo exhibition was held at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum in Krefeld in 1956. With his support Jean-Pierre Wilhelm ran the Galerie 22 until 1960. In 1959 Hoehme participated in documenta 2 and received a stipend at the Villa Massimo in Rome, where he became acquainted with the artists Alberto Burri, Cy Twombly and Robert Motherwell. From 1960 to 1984 he taught at Düsseldorf’s art academy. As a professor of painting he taught Sigmar Polke and Chris Reincke, among others. Hoehme died in Neuss in 1989.