Nan Hoover

Nan Hoover (May 12, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Dutch/American-expatriate artist who is known for her pioneering work in video art, photography and performance art.

She spent almost four decades living and working in the Netherlands.

She also used the mediums of drawing, painting, photography and film and created art objects and sculptures.

One of the main themes of her art was light and motion.

The rigorous, minimalist handling of her means as well as the intense concentration with which she performed within spaces of light and shadow are the most salient characteristics of her artistic work.

With her exploration of new media her artistic practice gained international recognition.

Her performances and light installations were shown worldwide in museums, exhibition houses and in public spaces.

Studies at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington D.C. from 1950 - 1955 were followed by exhibitions of her sculptures, paintings and drawings, first in Washington and later in New York City.

Her earliest dated works used expressive strokes, concentrated on individual figures with minimal background information and were largely executed in earthen tones.

Her interest in the human body and human psychology was too great to embrace an abstract expressionist style.

Sometimes the figures would display physical abnormalities and/or be seen from unusual perspectives that indicated vulnerable socio-psychological or emotional states and thus contributed to the impression of being surreal.

Isolated full figure studies and enigmatic relations between two or more figures predominate.

She was also interested in the secrets of light.

Her curiosity was enhanced through her visits to the Rembrandt van Rijn studies in oils in the Washington National Gallery of Art.

In 1954 she married Harold Hoover.

Between 1954 and 1958 they had three children.

During this time a few of her paintings vaguely reflect upon family topics such as mother and child or child and parents, but are not autobiographical in nature.

By the end of the 1960s Hoover had reduced her figures to flat planes and contours before primary hues of red, blue and yellow.

This was followed up by secondary colours and sexual, even aggressive poses.

Hoover's first trip to Europe was in 1962.

During the six months she was there she stayed in Paris, where she did small paintings and drawings.

In 1969 she visited Dutch friends in London and Amsterdam and decided, after having found a gallery in Amsterdam, to sublet her loft in New York and return to Amsterdam, the city with northern light and water, the city where Rembrandt lived and worked.

She would often say that she fell in love with the city.

In 1971 she was introduced to Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor and poet, who was looking for a caretaker for his Château Molesmes in France.

Between 1971 and 1973 she would work at the château in France and commute to Amsterdam for exhibitions.

In 1973 she met the Dutch painter Richard Hefti.

Through him she had access to a video camera and began in 1973 to experiment with it.

In January 1974 she did her first street performance in Berlin.

All her videos were produced in her studio before a fixed video camera and without post-editing.

The closely cropped glimpses of the artist's body and dark and light contrasts have a nuanced visual flow and intimacy.

In 1975 she and Richard Hefti married and she took on Dutch citizenship.

In 1976 she made the acquaintance of Wies Smals, who opened the first multimedia space de Appel in Amsterdam.

In 1977 she participated in the documenta 6 and in 1987 the documenta 8 in Kassel.

In 1984 Hoover participated in the Biennale di Venezia.

She taught art at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1986, was professor for video and film at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1987 - 1997, taught mixed media at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam from 1998 – 1999, and held classes in video and performance at the International Summer Academy in Salzburg from 1994 - 1996 and in 2001.

She also visited Berlin and mentioned in her curriculum vita of 1990 how moved she was by the recently built dividing wall.

She returned to New York City.

Hoover was born in Bay Shore, New York as Nancy Dodge Browne and died in Berlin June 9, 2008 as Nancy Hefty-Browne.

Early on, Hoover was committed to becoming an artist.

The choice between dance and the visual arts was decided in favour of painting and sculpture, mediums that allowed her an independent creative exploration.