MargoHoff.com

Solo Exhibition in Chicago

The Margo Hoff exhibition at Corbett vs. Dempsey was on view from November 27, 2009 - January 16, 2010. (Pictured: "Reception for the Artist" 1987, Acrylic Color Collage on Panel, 48"x48"—click on image to enlarge)

Discovered in the Archives

 
(From Left to Right. Click on any image to enlarge.)
The first photo shows Lena Horne and Commandant Berneaud of the SS Liberte; the painting between them is "Calendar," by Margo Hoff. The smaller painting on the left is also by the artist, and the way the work is displayed suggests the possibility that there was a Hoff exhibition (or a group show including her work) aboard the Transatlantic ocean liner. The ship was built in 1929 in Germany; captured by the British during World War II; sank in 1946; was subsequently raised and refitted, and saw service as a passenger liner from 1950-1961—this would seem to date the photo to the 1950s. The liner made an appearance in the classic film Sabrina (1954), starring Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. To read more about this ship's fascinating history, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Europa_(1928). 
Second photo: The Liberte sailing out of New York. 

Big Picture

"Undress" (1942), an early figurative painting by Margo Hoff was on display at the Chicago History Museum, in a show titled Big Picture: A New View of Painting in Chicago, from October 20, 2007 - August 3, 2008. 
The show "offers a history of painting in the city by showcasing works ranging from the late-19th-century realist, satirical, and folk traditions to mid-20th-century expressionism and abstraction." 
(Currently a photograph of the actual artwork is unavailable, but posted here is a woodblock print created by the artist, based on the painting.)
You can see a brief film clip, featuring Ms. Hoff's Chicago gallerists John Corbett and Jim Dempsey, giving an overview of the exhibition here:

Margo Hoff was the subject of a posting on the prominent gay website towleroad.com, with a brief overview of her life and career, written by Matthew Rettenmund. You can view the posting by going to http://www.towleroad.com/2008/07/winter-path.html.
Mr. Rettenmund subsequently placed a very moving follow-up posting, when Ms. Hoff passed, on his own website, which can be seen at: http://boyculture.typepad.com/boy_culture/2008/08/may-orchardwinter-path.html.
The photograph at left (from 1968) shows Ms. Hoff posing before her 3-Dimensional painting "Giant Butterfly," inspired by a visit to Southern Illinois orchards. (Repository Location: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560.)

ART: USA: NOW (1962)

 
The painting "Ikon" (first image, on left), by Margo Hoff, was part of ART: USA: NOW, The Johnson [Wax] Collection, which, beginning in late 1962, toured the world more extensively than any collection of American art of its time. Exhibitions were held in (among other locations) Tokyo, Hawaii, London (second image: Mrs. "Lady Bird" Johnson discusses the collection with Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden), Sweden, Paris, Germany, Athens, and Monaco (third image: Princess Grace of Monaco is photographed at the opening...when it was discovered that there was no gallery in Monte Carlo large enough to accommodate the artworks, Princess Grace had the Salons Privés of the Casino emptied of their gambling tables—at the height of the season—so the contemporary paintings could be seen on the Riviera). Cultural ministers from Poland and Yugoslavia sought to present the show, but were overruled by their governments. "Ikon," as well as the entire collection, is now part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collection.

The show was memorialized in a boxed, two-volume edition featuring a total of 102 artists (including, among many others, Hopper, O'Keeffe, de Kooning, Pollock, Yunkers, Cadmus, Osver, Tooker, Mitchell, Rivers, Diebenkorn, and Motherwell). A photo of each artist is accompanied by an autobiographical overview, foldout full-color reproduction of their featured artpiece, as well as multiple black-and-white examples of additional work. 
Art USA Now; Edited by Lee Nordness, Text by Allen S. Weller. A Studio Book, Viking Press, New York. Copyright 1963. 466 pages. Library of Congress catalog card number 62-19607.