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Evelyn Hofer

Biography of Evelyn Hofer

* 1922 Marburg (an der Lahn), Germany
† 2009 Mexico City

1942 Movement to Mexico
1946 The photographer finally settles in New York

Education:
All her photographic education took place during her short stay in Switzerland: She became an apprentice at the Studio Bettina in Zurich and studied under Robert Spreng in Basel. Additionally, she took private classes with Professor Hans Finsler at the Zurich School of Photography. But it was New York where her career as a freelance photographer began. She obtained her first commissions in the field of fashion photography for Harper’s Bazaar through the painter Richard Lindner and Alexey Brodovitch in the early ‘50s.

Since 2004 extensive biographies have been published in monographic catalogues.

Exhibitions at Galerie m Bochum
Evelyn Hofer. Early Color Photography, 2015
Evelyn Hofer. The Unknown Photographs, 2007
Evelyn Hofer. Fotografien seit 1955, 2001

The Gallery of Photography in Dublin has produced a short video about the installation of the exhbition "Evelyn Hofer. Dublin and Other Portraits" in 2012.
 


Coyocán, Mexiko, 2007
Photo © Valerie Sadoun



Prague, 1984, Photo: Ondrej Kubicek
Since the end of the ‘50s, she has published a series of books on different cities and countries together with various authors:

1959 The Stones of Florence with Mary McCarthy
1962 London Perceived with V.S. Pritchett
1964 The Presence of Spain with James Morris
1965 New York Proclaimed with V. S. Pritchett
1966 The Evidence of Washington with William Walton
1967 Dublin, A Portrait with V. S. Pritchett
1989 Emerson in Italy with Evelyn Barish

She has also produced many photographic essays and reportages for the magazines London Sunday Times, Life, Vogue, Vanity Fair.

Selected Solo exhibitions
2024
Eyes on the city, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
2023
Evelyn Hofer, The Photographers' Gallery, London
Eyes on the city, High Museum of Art, Atlanta
2022
Evelyn Hofer meets Richard Lindner, Neues Museum Nürnberg
Evelyn Hofer. New York, Centre Photographique Rouen, FR und GwinZegal, Guingamp, FR
2021
Evelyn Hofer. Begegnungen, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Eschborn
2020
Evelyn Hofer. Begegnungen - Encounters, KunstHalle Cloppenburg
Evelyn Hofer. Begegnungen, Fotostiftung Winterthur
2019
Begegnungen mit der Kamera, Museum Moderner Kunst Wörlen Passau
Evelyn Hofer. Begegnungen mit der Kamera. Eine Werkschau, Museum Kurhaus Kleve
Catalogue: Steidl
2015
Evelyn Hofer. Hommage à Zurbarán, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany (K)
Evelyn Hofer. Early Color Photography, Galerie m Bochum, Germany
Evelyn Hofer (1922 - 2009). Retrospektive, Museum Villa Stuck, München, Germany
2012
Evelyn Hofer. Dublin and Other Portraits, Gallery of Photography, Dublin
2010
Rose Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA
2008
Anna, Emma und all die anderen. Portraits by Evelyn Hofer, Kunstverein Ulm
2007
Evelyn Hofer. The Unknown Photographs, Galerie m Bochum
2006
Evelyn Hofer, Fundación Centro Ordóñez-Falcón de Fotografia, San Sebastian
Retrospectif, Fotomuseum Den Haag
2005
Evelyn Hofer - Ewigkeit im Augenblick, c/o Berlin
Evelyn Hofer. Still Lifes, Peter Blum Gallery, New York
2004
Evelyn Hofer: Fotografien seit 1950, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
2001
Evelyn Hofer. Fotografien seit 1955, Galerie m, Bochum
Eveyln Hofer. Photographs 1957-2000,, Rose Gallery, Santa Monica
1999
Evelyn Hofer. Interiors and Emerson in Italy, Musum of Art, University of Maine, Orono
1998
Emerson in Italy. Photographs by Evelyn Hofer, The Boston Athenaeum Gallery, Boston
1995
Evelyn Hofer, Museo Ciäsa Granda, Stampa
1994
Evelyn Hofer: Photographs, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne
1991
The People of Soglio, Witkin Gallery, New York
1988
Evelyn Hofer, Drew University Art Gallery, Madison
1987
Emerson in Italy, Witkin Gallery, New York
1985
Recent Photographs, Witkin Gallery, New York
1982
Photographs, Black & White and Colour, Witkin Gallery, New York
1979
Evelyn Hofer, Port Washington Public Library, Port Washington, N.Y.
1977
Photographs, Witkin Gallery, New York
1974
Photographs by Evelyn Hofer, The Art Institute of Chicago

Selected Group exhibitions
2023-2024
Die Stadt ist anderswo, Museum unter Tage, Bochum
2023
RE:CYCLE, The Ubiquitous Bike, The Church, Sag Harbor, NY
2022
Schätze entdecken. Werke aus der Sammlung, Museum Moderner Kunst Wörlen, Passau
2020 - 2021
Freischwimmer: Fotografie der Sammlung Viehof & des Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Museum Kurhaus Kleve
2020
America 1970s/80s. Hofer, Metzner, Meyerowitz, Newton, Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin
2019
Galerie m | 3. Mai 1969 - 3. Mai 2019
We love Photography! 20 years of Art Collection Deutsche Boerse, Frankfurt a.M.
2018
Intervention. Raum für Junge Kunst. Sammlung Reydan Weiss. "Ohne Etikett fühle ich mich freier...", Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig
Photography and Form, Fotomuseum Den Haag
2017
doing identity. Collection of Reydan Weiss, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany
Mir ist das Leben lieber. Sammlung Reydan Weiss, Museum Bochum
2016
Night Wakens, Fotomuseum Den Haag
Hopes of Paradise, Galerie m Bochum
Mir ist das Leben lieber. Sammlung Reydan Weiss, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
Strange and Familiar. Britain as Revealed by International Photographers, Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, London
2015
Human Nature - Art Collection Deutsche Börse, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf
2014
Second Sight. The David Kronn Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Garden Galleries, Dublin
2012
Seduced by Art. Photography Past and Present, The National Gallery, London
Play it again, Sam, Galerie m Bochum
2011
Weltsichten, Kunsthalle zu Kiel
Street Life and Home Stories. Fotografien aus der Sammlung Goetz, Museum Villa Stuck, München
2010
Weltsichten, Kubus, Situtaion Kunst, Bochum, (K)
Evelyn Hofer, Helen Levitt, Lilo Raymond, New York Public Library, USA
still. Claus Goedicke, Evelyn Hofer and Laura Letinsky, Galerie m Bochum, Germany
El silencio de los objetos, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Santa Cruz, Teneriffa
2008
Von Kunst und Politik. Fotografie der Sammlung des deutschen Bundestages, Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, Berlin
2006
Point of View: Timothy App, Evelyn Hofer and Aino Kannisto, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore
Shelter - Kunst für zwangsprostituirte Frauen, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
2005
Stillleben - Positionen in der Gegenwartskunst, Kunstkreis Cloppenburg e.V., Kardinal-von-Galen-Haus, Cloppenburg
Braut/Moden/Schau, Altonaer Museum, Hamburg
Des choses simples, Théâtre de la Photographie et de l'Image, Nizza
2004
Landschaftsbilder - Bochum sammelt II, Museum Bochum (K)
2003
z.B. Portrait, Kunstverein, Erfurt und Kunstverein Münsterland, Coesfeld
2002
Overnight to Many Cities, The Photographer's Gallery, London
Visio - Sehen mit allen Sinnen, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
Menschenbilder - 111 Werke aus Bochumer Privatbesitz, Museum Bochum (K)
2001
La natura della natura morte, Galeria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna
The Artist Revealed: Photographs from the Collection of Peter Paone and Alma Alabilikian, Ben Shahn Galleries, william PAterson University, Wayne (K)
1997
Und sie haben Deutschland verlassen... müssen. Fotografen und ihre Bilder 1928-1997, LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn
Always Towards the Light: 50 Years in Photography, Port Washington Public Library, Port Washington, NY
1996
Two, Witkin Gallery, New York
1994
Apollo in Silver, College of Design, Iowa State University Ames, Iowa
1990
Photography. 1980s - Discovery and Invention, Art Basel
In Bloom, Pfizer Corporation, New York
1989
Water, Pfizer Corporation, New York
1988
Master Photographs From the „Photography in the Fine Arts“ Exhibitions 1959-1967, International Center of Photography, New York (K)
Men‘s Lives - The Surfmen and the Baymen of the South Fork, Photographs from The Menil Collection, Houston, International Center of Photography, New York (K)
1987
Art Circles: Portrait Photographs from ArtNews 1905-1986, International Center of Photography, New York
FRIDA!, Mexican Museum, San Francisco (K)
1986
Interiors, Rice University, Houston Foto Festival
1980
A Century of Photography, C. W. Post Art Gallery, School of the Arts, Greenvale, Long Island (K)
1977
Contemporary Color Photography, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington
1976
Reflections. images of America, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brüssel (K)
Le Venezie di Fulvio Roiter, Ca‘Corner della Regina, Venedig (K)
1974
Manhattan Now. Contemporary Photographers Look at the Form of the Old City, The New-York Historical Society (K)
1960
Photography in the Fine Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (K)
1946
Exposición Anual Fotográfica, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexiko-Stadt

Selected works in public and private collections:
Sammlung Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Germany
Sammlung des Deutschen Bundestags, Berlin, Germany
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
DZ Bank Kuntsammlung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Sammlung Goetz, München, Germany
Fotomuseum Den Haag, Neatherlands
Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland
Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, Switzerland
Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, Switzerland
The Houston Museum of Fine Art, Houston
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
Photography Collection of the Public Library, New York
Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico
Middlebury College, Middlebury
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans
D. F . Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley
David Rockefeller, Jr.
McKinsey Company
Nynex Corporation
Prudential Insurance Company

Selected Bibliography

Artist´s Books
The Stones of Florence with Mary McCarthy, Harcourt Brace, 1959
London Perceived with V.S. Pritchett, Harcourt Brace, 1962
The Presence of Spain with James Morris, Harcourt Brace, 1964
New York Proclaimed with V.S: Pritchett, Harcourt Brace, 1965
The Evidence of Washington with William Walton, Harper & Row, 1966
Dublin, A Portrait with V.S. Pritchett, Harper & Row, 1967
Emerson in Italy with Evelyn Barish, Henry Holt & Co., 1989
Monography
Evelyn HoferEd. Susanne Breidenbach, Texte dt./engl. von Evelyn Hofer, Christoph Ribbat, Kim Sichel, Beat Wismer, Steidl, 2004
Evelyn Hofer Ed. Michael Buhrs und Sabine Schmid, Steidl 2015
Evelyn Hofer, Stilleben, Museum Kunstpalast 2015
Evelyn Hofer. Begegnungen/Encounters, Ed. Susanne Breidenbach, Texte dt./engl. Harald Kunde, Julia Sonnenfeld, Marion Bornscheuer, Steidl 2019

Essays

Time-Life Books:
The Age of Kings
Barbarian Europe
The Irish Crosses
Turner’s Petworth
The Bayous
Pepy’s London
The Ghosttowns
The Negro in Washington, 1968

The London Sunday Times:
English Prisons, 1975
Michelangelo in Florence
German artists East and West
(Just before the Wall came down) Berlin
Sir Alec Guiness and other portraits, 1987

Condé Nast publications (Vogue, Vanity Fair, House Garden):
The Villa Medici in Rome, 1984
La maison de verre in Paris, 1982
La maison Solvay in Bruxelles, 1986 and 1988
Frida Kahlo’s house in Mexico 1983 und 1989
Balthus and Montecalvello

Connoisseur:
The Palazzo Pallvicini Rospigliosi in Rome
The Vatican Gardens, 1991
Washington Portraits

The New York Times Magazine:
The Pope’s Poland
Saul Steinberg, 1978
Kurt Waldheim
Arthur Rubinstein, 1976
The Supreme Court