Biography
1920 Born on the 5th of February in Greppin, city of Bitterfeld.
1939-1945 Fighter pilot in the Second World War.
1945 (-1946?) American prisoner of war.
1946-1951 Studies book and type design at the Burg Giebichenstein art school in Halle (Saale) with the type designer Herbert Post. Marries Margarete Schulze.
1951 Flees to West Germany and settles in Düsseldorf. Studies briefly at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Otto Coester, in the class for “Free Graphics”, until 1953.
1952 Makes first visit to Paris with the German-French arts organiser Jean-Pierre Wilhelm.
1954 Receives the Cornelius Prize from the city of Düsseldorf.
1954-1956 Chairs the Gruppe 53.
1957 Receives the 2nd Prize at the International Biennial of Graphic Arts in New York.
1957-1960 Exhibitions with Galerie 22 in Düsseldorf (Jean-Pierre Wilhelm and Manfred de la Motte).
1959 Participates in documenta II in Kassel.
1960 Receives a scholarship for the Villa Massimo in Rome and is appointed a teaching position at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The students of Hoehme’s first class included Verena Pfisterer, Sigmar Polke, and Chris Reinecke among others.
1962 Premio Marzotto
From 1964 onwards, he takes up a second residence in Nemi, south of Rome.
1964 Rejects an offer to participate in documenta III in Kassel.
1965 Designs a large glass window for the Society of the Divine Word (Missionari Verbiti) in Nemi, near Rome.
From the middle of the 1960’s onwards, Hoehme experiments increasingly with industrial materials; he experiments with prefabricated nylon cords which extend out from the image into the room. Alongside images, he also develops objects, boxes, spatial installations, and mediators.
1968 Manifesto on Relationen (relations).
1974 Relocates from Düsseldorf to Neuss-Selikum.
From 1980 onwards, he works on the research project L’Etna – Mythos und Wirklichkeit (L’Etna – Mythos and Reality), which was funded by the Ministry of Science and Research of the state North Rhein-Westphalia. Hoehme takes a semester off to work and experiment on the Sicillian Mount Etna.
1984 Stops teaching at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf; is appointed to the Akademie der Künste in West-Berlin and made the Paul-Klee Professor for Fine Art at the Universität Giessen.
1989 Dies on the 29th of June in Neuss-Selikum.