Hans Hess (1907–1975) was a German museum curator who worked in Leicester and York.

Biography

He was born in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

, the son of a successful Jewish shoe manufacturer and patron of the arts

Alfred Hess Alfred Hess (19 May 1879 – 24 December 1931) was a German Jewish industrialist and art collector. Career Hess was a shoe manufacturer in Erfurt, Thuringia.Feininger,

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

, and Pechstein were family friends as well as people like who lived in the town where his mother was born and raised. Hans Hess attended the reform boarding schools

Wickersdorf Free School Community The Wickersdorf Free School Community (german: Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf) was a progressive school in Germany, founded by Gustav Wyneken and Paul Geheeb in 1906. In particular, the concept of "movement play" on the school stage can be ...

and ''

Schule am Meer Schule am Meer, English language, Engl. ''School by the Sea'', Hebrew language, Hebrew בית ספר ליד הים, also known as ''S.a.M.'' or ''SaM'', was a private, Holistic education, holistically oriented Mixed-sex education, coed Progres ...

'' where he also got confronted with a rich variety of expressionist arts, artists like

Christian Rohlfs Christian Rohlfs (November 22, 1849 – January 8, 1938) was a German painter and printmaker, one of the important representatives of German expressionism. Early life and education He was born in Groß Niendorf, Kreis Segeberg in Prussia. ...

, their paintings and art historians like . Hess worked for the publisher Ullstein until 1933, when he was forced out for being Jewish. He moved to London in 1935 and co-founded the ''Inside Nazi Germany'' magazine and, in 1938, helped to launch the 'Free German League of Culture'. He was interned on the Isle of Man as an 'enemy alien' before being deported to Canada. Hess returned to Britain in 1942. In early 1944 he was appointed Assistant Keeper of Art under the director Trevor Thomas (1907–1993) to

Leicester Museum and Art Gallery The Leicester Museum & Art Gallery (until 2020, New Walk Museum and Art Gallery) is a museum on New Walk in Leicester, England, not far from the city centre. It opened in 1849 as one of the first public museums in the United Kingdom. Leiceste ...

just before the opening of an exhibition, which ran from 5–27 February 1944, titled 'Mid-European Art', which was supported by the Free German League of Culture. Hess was promoted to Keeper of Art following Thomas' sudden and forced departure in 1946. Later, he was appointed curator at

York Art Gallery York Art Gallery is a public art gallery in York, England, with a collection of paintings from 14th-century to contemporary, prints, watercolours, drawings, and ceramics. It closed for major redevelopment in 2013, reopening in summer of 2015. T ...

in 1948, when the gallery reopened after being bombed during the Second World War. He lived with his wife (and fellow German refugee) Lillie Williams and their daughter Anita at

56 Skeldergate Skeldergate House Hotel is a Grade II* listed building in the Bishophill area of central York, in England. An earlier house at 56 Skeldergate was purchased by Ralph Dodsworth in 1769. In 1777, he became Sheriff of York, and it is believed tha ...

in York. He was awarded an

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

1958 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1958 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries ...

During his time in York he was artistic director of the York Festival in 1954, 1957, 1960, 1963, and 1966. He left York in 1967 to take up a post with the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

after a public altercation with Jack Wood, a York councillor, regarding the programme for the 1966 Festival. Throughout his life Hess was an active

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and contributed articles to ''

Marxism Today ''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacque ...

'', the magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. At the University of Sussex he was Reader in the history and theory of art. In 2010 he was the subject of a Sheldon Memorial Trust Lecture by

John Ingamells John Anderson Stuart Ingamells (12 November 1934 – 19 November 2013) was a British art historian, writer, and former director of the Wallace Collection. Early life and education A native of Sussex, Ingamells attended Hastings and Eastbourn ...

Select publications

*Hess, H. 1959. ''Lyonel Feininger''. Stuttgart,

Kohlhammer Verlag W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart. History Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-law ...

. *Hess, H. 1963. ''George Grosz, 1893-1959''. London, Arts Council. *Hess, H. 1964. ''The artist in an industrial society''. Hull, University of Hull.

References

German art curators 1907 births 1975 deaths Employees of York Art Gallery Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom People from Erfurt Officers of the Order of the British Empire Academics of the University of Sussex German Marxists {{Germany-artist-stub