Robert d'Hooghe

Robert Franz Armand Camille d'Hooghe (born November 12, 1903 in Armagh , Northern Ireland ; † May 17, 1987 in Darmstadt ) was a Belgian- German publisher, book and art dealer, as well as a journalist and author for art and literary reviews in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Newspaper and the Darmstädter Echo . He also worked as a photographer with the Folkwang Dance Theater of the City of Essen / Ballets Jooss and the International Summer Academy of Dance in Krefeld.

Life and education

D'Hooghe was born near Belfast in Northern Ireland to a Belgian father and a German mother, but left Great Britain as an infant and moved with his mother to Cologne, the city of their birth, in 1911. He lived there with interruptions until August 1924. After graduating from high school in 1919, he began a three-year apprenticeship in the Cologne bookstore C. Roemke & Cie and then worked at the Kunsthaus Lempertz. He also attended lectures on art history at the University of Bonn. From 1924 he continued his art history studies at the University of Berlin while working for the Rembrandt publishing house.

In 1937 d'Hooghe married the bookseller Marianne Wagner, with whom he moved to Darmstadt to take over a bookstore there. The couple separated in the early 1950s and d'Hooghe moved to the Rhineland, where he had a relationship with the Folkwang dancer Isa Partsch in Essen-Werden. In 1954 he returned to Darmstadt, where he died in 1987. D'Hooghe's life was determined by his passion for literature, books and pictures and his commitment to the Darmstadt art scene.

Professional background

In the course of his life, Robert d'Hooghe fulfilled numerous professional fields of activity, which always revolved around art and literature, books and images. He worked as a book and art dealer, as a publisher, and as an author and journalist for numerous art, literary and cultural reviews and critical essays. He also devoted himself to photography both practically and as a journalist. After his book trade apprenticeship, which he started in 1919, Robert d'Hooghe worked as an employee in Berlin from 1924 at the recently founded Rembrandt publishing house. There he published original graphics and portfolios on the fine arts and worked closely with Adolf Heilmann, who wrote two monographs on Käthe Kollwitz and Heinrich Zille for the publishing house . D'Hooghe got to know the artists personally, whereby a particularly intensive contact developed with Zille. This was followed by monographs on Ernst Barlach , Paula Modersohn-Becker , Wilhelm Lehmbruck , Edvard Munch , Georg Kolbe and Franz Marc in the publishing program . Occasionally he was also active as an author for the Vossische Zeitung , the eight o'clock evening paper and other newspapers and magazines. When the Rembrandt publishing house passed into other hands as a result of the economic crisis, Robert d'Hooghe set up his own business as a publishing agent in 1931 and published a book service.

In 1937 he and his then wife Marianne Wagner took over the renowned bookstore from Alfred Bodenheimer . They continued the bookstore as a book and art shop in his sense. This turned out to be difficult during the National Socialist era, because soon they were considered "friendly to Jews", were boycotted, received reports and were monitored. In 1944 the bookstore was completely destroyed in a bomb attack on Darmstadt. In July 1947, Robert d'Hooghe and his wife Marianne were able to reopen the bookstore in a ruin and build on the old tradition with lectures, poetry readings and art exhibitions with the participation of Werner Bergengruen , Bernard von Brentano and Georg Hensel and many others.

From 1948 to 1985, Robert d'Hooghe was also a politically unaffected author who was familiar with modern art and literature and a sought-after cultural critic in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Darmstädter Echo . From 1950 he devoted himself primarily to his journalistic activities. In 1952 he received the award of the German Association of Journalists for his articles The happiness of photography , photographic perspectives and image or symbol . At the same time, he was also active as a photographer, including for photo magazines. During his life together with the Folkwang dancer Isa Partsch in Essen-Werden until his return to Darmstadt in 1954 and again at the International Summer Academy of Dance in Krefeld in 1959, he photographed a lot of dance. These are mainly rehearsals from the Folkwang Dance Theater of the City of Essen / Ballets Jooss and by Rosalia Chladek . At the summer academy he photographed the lessons of Dore Hoyer , José de Udaeta , Victor Gsovsky and Lia Schubert. Both the publication of his dance photos and his texts on the subject of dance have not yet been researched or researched.

D'Hooge was awarded the Johann Heinrich Merck Honor of the City of Darmstadt in 1968 .

Works

Monographs

• Otto Steinert and Students - Photography as Image Creation . Kiel, 1957.
• With Fritz Ebner: The Torso - Fritz Schwarzbeck , Galerie Netuschil , Darmstadt 1982.
• About the last stroke of the pen - feuilletons . Selection and preface by Claus K. Netuschil. Archive of Darmstadt Artists, Darmstadt 1993.

Articles and essays (selection)

• Ballet - volatile art based on strict rules . Published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on December 10, 1954.
• To the situation of the dance . First published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on June 25, 1955, then in the Bühnengenossenschaft , Jg. 7/1955, No. 8, pp. 220–221.
• Heinz Hajek-Halke: Experimental Photography - Light Graphics. With a contribution by Robert d'Hooghe . Athenaeum, Bonn 1955.

Published photographs (selection)

• Weg im Nebel - A new Jooss ballet premiered in Essen . Published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on June 24, 1952.

Secondary literature

• Robert d'Hooghe - documents on life and work . With texts by Elisabeth Krimmel, Jürgen Diesner, Georg Hensel, Herbert Nette and Claus K. Netuschil. Archive of Darmstadt Artists, Darmstadt 1993.

Web links

• Short curriculum vitae on Deutsches-Tanzarchiv.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Here and in the following especially after Claus K. Netuschil: The book and art dealer, publisher and journalist Robert d'Hooghe , in: Robert d'Hooghe - documents on life and work . With texts by Elisabeth Krimmel, Jürgen Diesner, Georg Hensel, Herbert Nette and Claus K. Netuschil. Archive Darmstädter Künstler, Darmstadt 1993, p. 15–49 and Claus K. Netuschil: Feuilleton and Weltsicht - The Critic Robert d'Hooghe , in: About the last pen stroke - Feuilletons . Selection and preface by Claus K. Netuschil. Archive of Darmstädter Künstler, Darmstadt 1993, pp. 9–15.