This exhibition presents three paintings by German artist Andreas Hofer, who has been using the pseudonym Andy Hope 1930 since 1996. The Andy Hope 1930 alter-ego binds together American optimism and hope with a date that marks the dark European era of the Nazi party’s growing strength and rise to power. Like his assumed name, his oeuvre references and is a tribute to artists and artistic movements persecuted by this party in that terrible decade. Hofer refers to 1930 as a turning point, after which diverse and contradictory artistic currents became integrated.
Hofer’s works cut across time and space, they are highly individualistic and resist attempts at categorization. His images are an intermingling of multiple influences and styles, such as American comics, Dada, mythological themes, classic masterpieces, film noir, sciencefiction, German expressionism, Third Reich iconography, and 1960s neoexpressionism. The comic strip world influenced Hofer since childhood, before he learned English. According to the artist, the comic strip format and the fact that he could not understand the words motivated him to develop and redesign the images, as is in fact quite customary in this medium. One example is New Gods displayed here.
Unlike most artists presenting in this exhibition, Hofer is a German artist facing his country’s dark past. He does that by creating a distance from his past and culture. In his work, he introduces elements of other cultures, particularly the American, and integrates artistic styles considered “degenerate” by the Nazis. According to Hofer, history is a dynamic dimension which must be repeatedly investigated, whose multiple interpretations restrict the viewer’s point of view. Grappling with history as the starting point of his works is motivated by Hofer’s desire to steer clear of those those mentally restrictive interpretations. His postmodernist approach celebrates the principle of multivocality: past combined with present and future, mixed genders and races, high- and lowbrow art, conflicting political ideologies – all are rolled into one. Perhaps this is Hofer’s way of eliminating the rigid hierarchies the Nazi regime attempted to enforce.

Courtesy of a private collection

Less Reading...