Carl Hoeckner Sr.

Artist Extraordinaire
Introduction– I was friends with Carl Hoeckner Jr. for the last
22 years of his life. This guide is meant to give readers a
quick perspective of the interesting and socially relevant art
of his father, Carl Hoeckner Sr.

After arriving in America in 1910, Carl Hoeckner Sr. worked

in Chicago at Marshall Field's department store in their ad-
vertising department and stayed there throughout the war,
while at the same time pursuing his interest in fine art. Be-
coming increasingly political and critical of war as a result of
World War I, he painted a piece called "War", which was ex-
hibited in 1918 at the Architectural League, New York.

In 1929 he became an instructor at the Art Institute of Chica-

go where he taught classes in industrial design, and in the
1930s he served as director of the graphics division of the
Illinois Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. This
position allowed him to express his political views and also to
influence other artists to do the same. In his lithographs from
the 1930s, Hoeckner’s talents as a printmaker and his activ-
ism coalesced to produce “social documents” reflecting his
ideals of justice.

Throughout his life Hoeckner explored both "commercial art,"

which was how he made a living, and "fine art," which was
his definition of self-expression. Sometimes he reduced the
original size of paintings by cutting them down. Exhibition
venues included the Society of Independent Artists, Salons
of America, the Pennsylvania Academy and the National
Academy of Design. Murals by Hoeckner are in the Coonley
School in Downers Grove, Illinois.

During his career, Hoeckner participated in numerous group

exhibitions with the Chicago Society of Artists and Chicago
Society of Etchers, and showed two of his paintings at the
Century of Progress Exposition in 1933. He exhibited in other
major US cities: in New York with the Society of Independent
Artists (1918, 1928–29) and at the National Academy of De-
sign (1942–43), and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fi-
ne Arts (1921). He taught at the School of the Art Institute
from 1929 to 1943 to supplement his work as a fine artist.
Through his teaching, original oil paintings, lithographs, and
social activism, Hoeckner left behind an enduring legacy of
the art scene in Chicago during the Depression.

Source: https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/
biography/1033/Hoeckner/Carl