David Hare (March 10, 1917 – December 21, 1992) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
, associated with the
SurrealistSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
movement. He is primarily known for his
sculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
, though he also worked extensively in
photographyPhotography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor...
and
paintingPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
.
In the late 1930s, with no previous artistic training, he began to experiment with
color photographyColor photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors which are produced chemically during the photographic processing phase. It is contrasted with black-and-white photography, which uses media capable only of showing shades of gray. It does not include hand colored or...
. Using his previous education in
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
Hare developed an
automatistAutomatism has taken on many forms: the automatic writing and drawing initially practiced by surrealists can be compared to similar, or perhaps parallel phenomena, such as the non-idiomatic improvisation of free jazz....
technique called "heatage" in which he heated the unfixed
negativeIn photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film, for 35mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that the next image is...
from an 8 by 10-inch plate, causing the image to ripple and distort.
Hare's Surrealist experiments in photography were only one of his many projects.
David Hare (March 10, 1917 – December 21, 1992) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
, associated with the
SurrealistSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
movement. He is primarily known for his
sculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
, though he also worked extensively in
photographyPhotography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor...
and
paintingPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
.
In the late 1930s, with no previous artistic training, he began to experiment with
color photographyColor photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors which are produced chemically during the photographic processing phase. It is contrasted with black-and-white photography, which uses media capable only of showing shades of gray. It does not include hand colored or...
. Using his previous education in
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
Hare developed an
automatistAutomatism has taken on many forms: the automatic writing and drawing initially practiced by surrealists can be compared to similar, or perhaps parallel phenomena, such as the non-idiomatic improvisation of free jazz....
technique called "heatage" in which he heated the unfixed
negativeIn photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film, for 35mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that the next image is...
from an 8 by 10-inch plate, causing the image to ripple and distort.
Hare's Surrealist experiments in photography were only one of his many projects. In 1940 he received a commission from the
American Museum of Natural HistoryThe American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, USA, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
to document the
Pueblo IndiansThe Pueblo people are a Native American people in the Southwestern United States. Their traditional economy is based on agriculture and trade. When first encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, they were living in villages that the Spanish called pueblos, meaning "villages"...
of the
American SouthwestThe Southwestern United States is defined as the states that lie west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37, 38, 39, or 40 degree north latitude. A 97.33 longitude degree west could qualify as the separation of the American Southwest from the...
, for which he eventually produced 20 prints developed using
Eastman KodakEastman Kodak Company is a multinational US corporation which produces imaging and photographic materials and equipment. Long known for its wide range of photographic film products, Kodak is re-focusing on two major markets: digital photography and digital printing.- Origins :Kodak's origins rest...
's then-new dye transfer process (a time-consuming and complicated technique). In the same year, he also opened his own commercial photography studio in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and exhibited his photographs in a solo show at the Julien Levy Gallery.
In the next few years, through his cousin the painter
Kay SageKatherine Linn Sage , usually known as Kay Sage, was an American Surrealist artist and poet.-Biography:...
, he came into contact with a number of Surrealist artists who had fled their native
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
because of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Hare became closely involved with the émigré Surrealist movement and collaborated closely with them on projects such as the Surrealist journal
VVVright|thumb| The cover of the final issue was designed by [[Roberto Matta]].VVV was a magazine devoted to the dissemination of Surrealism, published in New York City from 1942 through 1944....
, which he cofounded and edited from 1941 to 1944 with
André BretonAndré Breton was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the principal founder of Surrealism...
,
Max ErnstMax Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
, and
Marcel DuchampMarcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
. He began to experiment with Surrealist sculpture, which soon became his primary focus, and exhibited his work as solo shows in a number of prestigious venues, including
Peggy GuggenheimMarguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim was an American art collector. Born to a wealthy New York City family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912 and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who would establish the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation...
's The Art of This Century gallery.
In 1948 he became a founding member, along with
Mark RothkoMark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Latvian-born American painter and printmaker. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted the classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk...
,
William BaziotesWilliam Baziotes was an American painter influenced by Surrealism and was a contributor to Abstract Expressionism....
and
Robert MotherwellRobert Motherwell was an American abstract expressionist painter and printmaker. He was one of the youngest of the New York School , which also included Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Philip Guston.Motherwell was born in Aberdeen, Washington...
, of the Subjects of the Artist School in New York. Hare continued to be closely associated with influential artists and thinkers throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, counting
Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
,
BalthusBalthasar Klossowski de Rola , best known as Balthus, was an esteemed but controversial Polish-French modern artist....
,
Alberto GiacomettiAlberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Alberto Giacometti was born in October 1901 in Italian-speaking Switzerland and came from an artistic background - his father, Giovanni, was a well known Post-Impressionist painter...
, and
Pablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Commonly known simply as Picasso, he is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art...
among his friends and acquaintances.
During the 1960s and 1970s Hare held teaching positions at several different schools, including the Philadelphia College of Art. During this period, he began work on his Cronus series of sculpture, paintings, and drawings, which became the subject of a solo show at New York's
Guggenheim MuseumThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened its doors on October 21, 1959 and is one of the best-known museums in New York City and one of the 20th century's most important architectural landmarks...
in 1977. In subsequent years he was included in many Surrealist retrospectives, primarily represented by his sculpture and painting.
He died on December 21, 1992 in
Jackson, WyomingJackson is a town located in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 8,647 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Teton County....
, after an emergency operation for an
aortic aneurysmAn aortic aneurysm is a general term for any swelling of the aorta, usually representing an underlying weakness in the wall of the aorta at that location...
.
Catalogs which include David Hare (artist)
- Reuniting an Era abstract expressionists of the 1950s, Exhibition: Nov. 12, 2004-Jan. 25, 2005, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL
- The Third Dimension Sculpture of the New York School, by Lisa Phillips, Exhibition circ.: December 6, 1984-March 3, 1985 The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York ISBN 0-87427-002-2
- American Painting of the 1970s, essay by Linda L. Cathcart, Exhibition circ.:December 8, 1978-January 14, 1979 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
- 200 Years of American Sculpture, Bicentennial Exhibition: March 16-September 26, 1976, organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, David R. Godine, Publisher in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art ISBN 0-87923-185-8 HC
Books
- Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4. pp. 158-161
- The Annual & Biennial Exhibition Record of the Whitney Museum of American Art 1918-1989. Incorporating the serial exhibitions of The Whitney Studio Club, 1918-1928; The Whitney Studio Club Galleries, 1928-1930; The Whitney Museum of American Art, 1932-1989, ed. by Peter Falk, Sound View Press, 1991 ISBN 0-932087-12-4
- New York Cultural Capital of the World 1940-1965 ed. Leonard Wallock, Rizzoli, New York 1988 ISBN 0-8478-0990-0
- American Sculpture in Process: 1930/1970 by Wayne Andersen, New York Graphic Society Boston, Massachusetts, Little, Brown and Company Publisher, 1975 ISBN 0-316-03681-1
- American Art of the 20th Century by Sam Hunter and John Jacobus, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1973 ISBN 0-8109-0135-8
- American Art Since 1900 A Critical History by Barbara Rose, Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, New York, Washington 1967 Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 67-20743
- Modern Sculpture from the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Collection, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1962 Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 62-19719
- The Sculpture of this Century by Michel Seuphor, Gorge Braziller Inc., New York, 1960 Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 60-7807
- Sculpture of the Twentieth Century by Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Thames & Hudson, Ltd., London, December, 1952.
External links