Raoul Hague

Born Haig Heukelekian to Armenian parents in Constantinople, Turkey, Raoul Hague (1904 – 1993) immigrated to the United States in 1921. Hague studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1928, moved to New York City. He found community through studio classes at the Arts Students League, and throughout his lifetime, befriended many influential artists, such as Arshile Gorky, Bradley Walker Tomlin and Philip Guston.

Working in stone and wood, Hague’s early abstract sculptures, which are evocative of the human figure, attracted acclaim. His sculpture treats surface quality through texture and the play between shadow and light.

Hague became an American citizen in 1931 and participated in the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration from 1935 to 1939. His work was first featured in the group exhibition American Sources of Modern Art (1932 – 1933) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, organized by Holger Cahill, National Director of the WPA.

Following service in the US Army, Hague moved to Woodstock, NY, in 1943 then used his GI Bill benefits to travel through Europe and North Africa. Returning to America brought a new phase of his career. His sculpture became larger and more abstract.

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Hague’s work continued to be exhibited in and collected by American galleries and museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, all in New York. Hague’s first retrospective, curated by Gerald Nordland was at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in Washington, DC in 1964. Following this exhibition, Hague was presented with numerous awards, including those from the Ford Foundation in 1961, the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1967, the Mark Rothko Foundation in 1972, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1973.

Hague’s work in the 1980s and 90s evolved, featuring rougher surface textures. His sculptures evidence chainsaws and power tools he used – with these, he opened the forms, exposing the natural qualities of the wood, including its decay.

In a 1979 interview with Paula Giannini of Art International, Hague explains this process: “I cut the mass into fragments and I move in it. One can orchestrate in the wood — I don’t have a clear idea when I start. I am not a conceptual artist. So you begin. You stare at it, and finally you have to do something. You are not making a story out of it. You make a cut. From then on it follows. Like the jazz musician, music comes out of you. You make one cut, then you become intimate. That thing becomes humanized, a being.”

Raoul Hague passed away in his cabin in Woodstock, NY in 1993 at the age of 88.

[Source: Museum Staff]