Dear panglemacdang,
Charles Hofer was actually not German, but Swiss. I have found a brief
autobiographical sketch he wrote in 1920 for the July issue of "Der
Ararat", a catalog published by the Neue Kunst Hans Goltz Galerie
(Hans Goltz Gallery for New Arts) in Munich. Here is what he wrote
about himself:
"I gladly grant the request to provide the readers of the 'Ararat'
some words about my life so far. Any kind of individuality forms a
curve whose incidental results we are; to become acquainted with it is
not without benefit. Howerver, what I indend to say shall be said in
the most succinct way since the pen is the most unfit tool for a
painter's hand.
Born in Switzerland in 1887, I spend my teens surrounded by the
austere frame of the Jura Mountains valleys which I left early enough,
attracted by the Paris of painting whose appeal is irresistible. That
city would decide over my destiny: There I have spent my most
important years, maybe not in respect of work, but in intellectual
terms. Years of joy, of doubt, of material struggles, the destiny of
so may young man in the early dawn of a life devoted to the arts,
where - on the summit of youth - the most basic work, the final
formation happens yet. The outbreak of the war delayed evolvement and
even almost threatened to destroy the burgeon.
The horrible monster did truly not spare me. I felt to deeply
associated with my environment to not participate in the great
distress. Certainly, I wanted to to it in a peaceful spirit, to heal
wounds but to to cause wounds. It happened differently from what I
intended. 18 months of ugliness, of killing, of blood in the trench!
As a convalescent I came to Geneva, with the relief of having escaped
that butchery as my sole gleam of hope, and being intent on never
returning there. Together with Romain Rolland, I had the pleasure to
meet many brothers of my attitude here, authors of young France,
fervent pacifists like P. J. Jouve, Renè Arcos and others who,
together with several other refugees from all nations, summoned up all
their power for the struggle against the lie and the hate, for the
confraternity of all humans. Although I was not able to actively
participate in their endeavours, I felt ethically connected with them
all the time, and together with them I signed the 'Manifesto of the
Liberty of the Mind'.
Of course, all those dark years when a smell of corpses hang over the
world, were unfavourable to the reverie that is so necessary for the
work of a painter (necessary at least for the one who does not intend
to make his art a weapon). But the hope that arises anew now will, by
freeing conscience, reawaken the cult of art, the attribute of
happiness and of peace among the nations.
Genoa, 10 May 1920
Charles Hofer."
One page in that July 1920 issue of "Der Ararat" lists serveral
paintings, watercolor pictures and drawings that were exhibited at the
Goltz Gallery then:
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/Ararat/8/pages/090.htm
That Munich gallery, exclusive representative of Charles Hofer, was
known for exhibiting and selling Expressionist and Dadaist art, thus
the "New Art" in the gallery's name.
Some more biographical detail comes from two articles about Charles
Hofer's wife, Swiss author Cécile Hofer-Houriet, also known as Cilette
Ofaire (1891-1964):
"A painter and a graphic artist of original potency, she lived since
1912 together with her husband Charles Hofer only for her art (...).
From 1923 on, the two artists sailed the canals and rivers all over
Europe on their house boat 'San Luca', they painted, drew and exposed
their creations aboard. In her first book 'Le San Luca' of 1934,
Cilette Ofaire literary described the painter-odyssey. She had begun
to write when an eye complaint kept her from painting. That was in
1933, when she was about to trade the 'San Luca' for a sea-going
vessel, the 'Ismé' and to sail the seas as her own captain, since
meanwhile her marriage had broken apart."
"In 1914, she married the fellow painter Charles Hofer, with whom she
relocated to Paris. When in 1916 he deserted from the French army to
Geneva, she accepted a position as a secretary for the author and
publicist Cuno Hofer. From 1923 on, the couple traveled the rivers and
canals of Europe on the houseboat 'San Luca', starting in Hamburg
(...). In 1932, the artist couple purchased the sea-going vessel
'Ismé' in England, with which O. sailed the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean from 1933-1937 after her marriage had failed."
This is all I could find in online sources about Charles Hofer. On
Monday, I will consult the art encyclopedia in my library to find out
more, if available. I will then add the new results to this answer.
But I hope that this information is already useful for you.
Regards,
Scriptor
Sources:
University of Iowa Library: "Der Ararat" No. 8 (Munich, July 1920)
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/Ararat/8/index.htm
Page 69 thereof: Autobiographical sketch by Charles Hofer
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/Ararat/8/pages/069.htm
Hans Goltz - Wegbereiter der Moderne
http://www.goltz-vision.business.t-online.de/hansgoltz.html
Linsmayer: Biographische Artikel zu Autorinnen und Autoren des
Zeitraums 1890 bis 1960 - Cilette Ofaire
http://www.linsmayer.ch/O/OfaireCilette.html |
