Hocherg, Zanne

Zanne Hocherg

 (Am. 1931-2001)

Born in 1931 in Rochester, New York, Zanne Hochberg received a Bachelor of Arts from University of Florida in 1953, and a Master of Arts from Southern Methodist University in 1974. She began a career as a serious painter when she arrived in Dallas, Texas in the 1950s. Important artists who influenced Hochberg’s work include Motherwell, Modigliani, Miro, Frankenthaler, Cezanne, deKooning, Lautrec and others. About Zanne Hochberg, Ted Pillsbury, art expert and former Director of the Kimball and Meadows Museums reflected: “I think she (Zanne Hochberg) was the kind of person who never wanted to be pinned down to a school or a particular style. Her art was a means of expressing something about herself, her feelings, her life and the world, and beauty and truth; and, she produced a very solid body of work. I think arguably, over time, some of her work is going to be recognized as being very important, influential and progressive.” (Interview, 2009) Hochberg was a prolific artist who was best known for her abstract paintings. She referenced human figures in many pieces, and worked in other media including prints, works on paper and constructions. Hochberg spent the final decade of her life painting historical family portraits, which received much acclaim when exhibited in a 2011 museum retrospective at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts in San Angelo, Texas. During Hochberg’s lifetime, she enjoyed a strong following, exhibited paintings in many distinguished galleries and museums, and appreciated the acquisition of her work into important private and public collections, including the Dallas Museum of Art (1980). Since her death in 2001, four additional Texas museums have accessioned Hochberg paintings into permanent collections, including: The Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, 2007); The Contemporary Austin (formerly Austin Museum of Art, 2009); San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts (San Angelo, 2011); and Old Jail Art Center (Albany, 2013). Museum exhibits of Hochberg’s work continue posthumously and include: San Angelo Museum of Fine Art’s retrospective exhibition, Zanne Hochberg: “The Art of Our Time” in 2011. Austin Museum of Art juxtaposed Hochberg and Frankenthaler paintings in the “Collection Selections” exhibit in 2009-10. Winthrop University Museum (Rock Hill, South Carolina) organized a retrospective exhibition, “Zanne Hochberg, Seeking the Center” in 2004. Excerpts below are published comments by art historians, museum directors and art critics, which provide important biographical insights about Hochberg’s contributions: Howard Taylor, Director, The San Angelo Museum of Fine Art (2011): “Hochberg was very much a woman of her time who established a strong presence in the art world at a time when it was not common for women to do so.” Jim Edwards, Art Historian (2011): “Like Frankenthaler, Hochberg intuitively believed in the overarching idea that abstract painting can so please the eye, that its arrangement of color and form defines a sense of beauty . . . She (Hochberg) was also an accomplished painter who, through her hard work, and study of art, made a place for herself in the history of Texas art.” (See askart.com discussion post for additional commentary by Edwards). Andrew Svedlow, Ph.D. Art Historian (2004): “Hochberg created paintings, works on paper, prints and constructions that are endowed with her deep attachment to the reflective process. While many artists spend their careers closely observing the objective world around them, Hochberg made her art interesting by critically questioning her own construction of a world of the imagination.” MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Austin Contemporary Art Museum Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, 2007 Winthrop University Gallery, Rock Hill, South Carolina, 2004 Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University, Topeka, KS, 1988 Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, 1980 National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas Old Jail Art Center, Albany, Texas