Docent Research Project 2011 By: Tracey Cullen
Alexandre Hogue
Dust Bowl (1933)
Oil on canvas
24 x 32 5/8 inches
About the Object
“Dust Bowl” is a desolate landscape painting of what appears to be a deserted, wind-
blown farm. There is a strong sense of abandonment and no signs of any life. No green
trees, no grass or crops, no animals grazing, no people tending to their farm. A leafless
shrub sits in the lower left corner that looks like the barbed wire that sits tangled next to
it. There is a clear fore, middle and background. The barbed wire fence in the right
foreground is broken in one area with what appears to be tire tracks in the dirt, which
indicate evidence of departure. There are no tracks beyond the foreground that lead
towards the farm. There are also animal tracks in the left foreground and additional
broken wire and fencing. In the far background is a windmill along with a silhouette of
barn structures. There are ridges in the dirt in the foreground, which in some places look
like zebra stripes. The middle ground dirt is smooth and soft in appearance, almost
pillow-like. Evidence of erosion caused by drought and wind is evident. The painting
appears to be divided into three horizontal sections. The bottom third consists of the
tracks and ridges in the dirt. In the middle section, we see fence posts and barbed wire.
The top third includes the sky. The sky is a bright red with a strong V shape right in the
center where the sun is painted. A strong yellow band of color rings the white sun. The V
shape of the white sky and tracks and lines in the dirt draw your eyes to the center of the
painting. There is also an additional V shape formed in two places by the fence posts.
Warm colors prevail – red, yellow, ochre/tan with white and black.
Materials and Process
Oil on canvas. Limited color palette.
(Currently not on view so unable to provide further details)
About the Artist
Alexandre Hogue was born February 22, 1898 in Memphis, Missouri and was raised in
Denton, TX. He was encouraged by his parents to attend art school and attended
Minneapolis College of Art and Design. After one year he began work in Dallas as an
illustrator for the Dallas Morning News. In 1921 he went to NYC where he worked as a
commercial artist for advertising firms, specializing in calligraphy and lettering. He spent
summers sketching in Texas during this period and in 1925 he returned to Texas where
he began to paint full time. In 1928 he exhibited his painting “Studio Corner, Taos” at the
National Academy of Design and had his first solo exhibition in 1929 at the Museum of
Fine Arts in Houston. He began teaching art classes in Denton at the Texas State College
Docent Research Project 2011 By: Tracey Cullen
for Women in 1931. He later taught at Hockaday Junior College and became the head of
art department in 1936.
During the 1920’s and 30’s he spent time sketching and painting in the artist colony of
Taos, NM where he became friends with Ernest Blumenschein, W. Herbert Denton and
Joseph Imhof. It was here that he also developed an interest in the Native American tribes
and their culture.
Hogue was a founding member of the Dallas Nine, a group of artists in the Dallas area
during the 1930’s and 40’s that used the land and people of the Southwest as their
inspiration. He became a leader in the Dallas Regionalist painting style and contributor to
Southwest Review. He was also a founding member of the Lone Star Printmakers in
1938.
He worked at North American Aviation as a technical illustrator during WWII. After the
war, in 1945, he settled in the Tulsa, OK area and joined the University of Tulsa,
eventually becoming the head of the art department for 18 years. Even after he stepped
down as department head, he continued teaching before retiring to his farm/studio near
Tulsa in 1968. The University of Tulsa founded the Alexandre Hogue Gallery in his
honor.
Hogue’s later work included among others, a water erosion series and an oil industry
series for Forbes magazine. He was prolific in style, medium (pastel, oil, watercolor,
lithography) and subject (including moonscapes and beachscapes!). His earliest works
were more of the Realist style and later works more abstract. He said he used his art to
explore new environments.
In 1938 he married Maggie Jo Watson with whom he had one daughter.
He died in Tulsa, July 22, 1994.
Connection: Art
Hogue painted the land and life of America that he knew well – the Southwest, Texas and
Oklahoma. Considered to be a Regionalist painter, like Grant Wood and Thomas Hart
Benton, he was interested in the spiritual aspect of nature and forms of the land. Hogue
was a founding member of the Dallas Nine, a movement that focused on creating artwork
that drew upon inspiration from their immediate surroundings – the land, wildlife and
people of the Southwest. In 1933 many of the Dallas Nine received financial support
through the federal Public Works of Art Project and later the Works Projects
Administration. Hogue was responsible for several murals painted in Texas state
government buildings during this time. It was during the Centennial Exposition of 1936
that the Regionalist movement of the Dallas Nine artists was brought to national
attention. Hogue and the Dallas Regionalists favored realism in their paintings vs. the
abstraction and impressionist styles that was popular in Europe at the time. The murals
and prints of contemporary Mexican painters, such as Rivera and Orozco, also influenced
them. As the Abstract Expressionist movement blossomed in the late 1940’s and early
1950’s, the regionalist movement faded and the Dallas Nine group disbanded.
Docent Research Project 2011 By: Tracey Cullen
Interestingly, Hogue never referred to himself as a Regionalist perhaps because unlike
other Regionalist artists, he chose to blame humans rather than empathize with them for
their plight during the Dust Bowl and Depression. He called himself an “abstract realist”.
Connection: History
Growing up and working through the years of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and
WWII were all important influences on Hogue’s work. His drawing skills were put to use
during the war as he worked for North American Aviation. He witnessed first hand the
destruction of the land due to poor land use management, drought and the introduction of
new industrial equipment that resulted in erosion issues, food shortages, the loss of
farmers and the migration west in hopes of finding a better life. Hogue felt people were at
fault for the Dust Bowl because of their lack of respect towards nature and the move
towards using machines, like the tractor, in the fields, which was replacing the farmer. He
felt a strong spiritual connection to the land. His artistic mother also had an influence on
his work. She was an artist and avid gardener who instilled in him the importance of
respecting Mother Earth. He has commented that his paintings were not to be viewed as
negative but to point out the benefits of preserving the land.
In Their Own Words
“My handling of the Dust Bowl group of paintings was absolutely mine. I had a personal
way of painting sand dunes, my own way of painting sand around fence posts. The
paintings were not photographic, were of no definite place. They were the sum total of
many places. I saw the Dust Bowl happen, saw it coming. I was a youthful cowboy in
Dalhart, Texas. It was strictly grazing land, the most beautiful you ever saw. It will never
be the same again.”
“Hogue always viewed himself as radical, yet his passion stemmed from a deeply
conservative idea – that art, culture and nature should form a central force in the early life
of every human being.” -- Deborah Fullerton, Associate Curator, Art Museum of South
Texas.
After the explosion of the Abstract Expressionist Movement, artists like Hogue became
increasingly ignored. Hogue said, “Artist and farmer are forgotten men as far as
Washington is concerned. I’m both. “
Related Objects
While this piece is not currently on display, the Southwest/Taos gallery (N241), where
the works of his friend Blumenschein can be seen, would be a good place to visit to
compare styles. There are also many Depression era paintings in our collection that
would be interesting to compare with Hogue’s “Dust Bowl”. Of particular interest would
be “Relief Blues” by O. Louis Guglielmi and “Tenement Flats” by Millard Sheets, both
painted the same year (1933) yet both featuring the plight of people during this difficult
time vs. the devastation of the land depicted in the “Dust Bowl”.
Docent Research Project 2011 By: Tracey Cullen
Discussion Questions
What is visible in this painting? What is missing from this landscape?
What does this painting tell us about the environment? Where does this scene take place?
What time of day is it? What about season of the year?
What elements of art does the artist use to move your eye around the painting?
Why has the artist chosen to paint the sky red?
Where has the artist used a V shape and how many can you find?
Why are there no people in this painting? No animals?
If this artist was living today, what environmental issues might he address in his
landscapes?