- Year of birth, place
- 1938, Nuremberg, Germany
- Year of death, place
- 2024, Berlin, Germany
- Role at the ZKM
- in the collection
- Biography
- Karl Horst Hödicke was born in Nuremberg in 1938 and studied (1959-64) at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Berlin, under Fred Thieler. In 1964 he was awarded the Deutscher Kunstpreis der Jugend. He spent the academic year of 1966-67 in New York and won the Villa Massimo Prize in 1968, which enabled him to spend a year in Rome. In 1974 he became a professor at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, where he now lives.
In the early 1960s Hödicke's painting was influenced by his work with Tachisme and characterized by its gestural handling thinly applied paint. A break with informal art was apparent when his picture surfaces started to fill with a great many overlapping figures. During the later 1960s, in addition to painting, Hödicke also made short films. Between 1967 and 1976 he created constructions using found objects, usually items of everyday use. From the late 1970s he has produced sculpture, working in bronze since 1985. The overriding source of inspiration for Hödicke's painting is the city of Berlin. Motifs such as the Brandenburg Gate and subjective interpretations of
Berlin-specific metropolitan themes have determined the distinctive character of his expressive style. Through his concentration on a small number of motifs in any one picture, and their enlargement, the intensive colours and the representation of beast-like figures that seem to be derived from the appearance of simple domestic pets, quotidian urban reality becomes simultaneously threatening and puzzling. In addition to urban motifs, Hödicke adapts impressions he has collected on his various travels, producing records of landscape and nature. These may be understood as counterparts to the Berlin pictures, in alluding to the loss of a natural context for human life.
Individual exhibitions (selection)
1964 Galerie Großgörschen 35, Berlin
1965 »K. H. Hödicke. Passagen, Verzerrungen«, Galerie René Block, Berlin
1972 »Filme 1968-71«, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Videothek, Berlin
1976 René Block Gallery, New York
1977 »K. H. Hödicke«, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
1981 »K. H. Hödicke. Bilder 1962-1980«, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
1984 »K. H. Hödicke. Pinturas 1975-1984«, Galerie Fernando Vijande, Madrid
1986 »K.H. Hödicke, Gemälde, Skulpturen, Objekte, Filme«, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, subsequently at Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Wolfsburger Kunstverein, Wolfsburg
1987 »K. H. Hödicke«, L.A. Lauver Gallery, Venice
1988 »K. H. Hödicke«, one man show within the exhibition »Kunst in Berlin im 20. Jahrhundert«, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
1990 »K. H. Hödicke. Tiger«, Studio d'Arte Cannaviello, Milan
1991 »K. H. Hödicke, 89/90 Materialien«, Galerie Wolfgang Gmyrek, Düsseldorf
1993 »K. H. Hödicke. Berliner Ring«, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein in der Orangerie im Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, subsequently at Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
1994 »K. H. Hödicke: Plastik«, Städtische Galerie im Park, Viersen
1995 »K. H. Hödicke: Stadtbilder«, Galerie Gunzenhauser, Munich; »K. H. Hödicke: Operation Cranach. Neue Bilder«, Galerie Wolfgang Gmyrek, Düsseldorf
1996 »Bronzen und Zeichnungen«, Galerie Wolfgang Gmyrek, Düsseldorf
1997 »K. H. Hödicke: havapaintamilkaday, Bilder von der Westküste Irlands 1981-1996«, Kunsthalle in Emden, subsequently at Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, Daniel-Pöppelmann-Haus, Herford
Group exhibition (selection)
1963 »Junge Stadt sieht junge Kunst. Malerei, Graphik, Plastik«, (Kunstpreis der Stadt Wolfsburg), Stadthalle, Wolfsburg
1964 »Deutscher Kunstpreis der Jugend 1964: Malerei«, Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim
1969 »Objekte und Bildreliefs«, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
1971 »Metamorphose des Dinges«, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
1981 »A New Spirit in Painting«, Royal Academy of Arts, London
1982 »Zeitgeist«, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
1985 »German Art in the 20th Century«, Royal Academy of Arts, London; »1945-1985. Kunst in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland«, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
1987 »Berlinart 1961-1987«, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, subsequently at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
1988 »Refigured Painting. The German Image 1960-1988«, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, subsequently at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, subsequently at Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/M
1990 Biennale di Venezia, Venice
1993 »Europe Without Walls. Art, Postersand Revolution 1989-93«, City Art Galleries, Manchester
1995 »Europa de postguerra 1945-1965«, Fundació »la Caixa«, Barcelona; »Auf Papier. Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts aus der Deutschen Bank«, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/M, subsequently at Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig
1996 »La ville moderne en Europe«, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
1997 »Deutschlandbilder«, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
[Konstanze Thümmel, 1997]
