Karl Hofer – Circus Performers

Karl Hofer, Circus Performers, 1921

I have a soft spot for circus scenes in art, as well as in film, poetry and other arts, and so I was very happy upon discovering Karl Hofer’s painting “Performers” from 1921. At the time this painting was painted Hofer lived in Berlin and he had just been appointed a professor at the College of Fine Arts in Charlottenburg. The Berlin setting instantly brought to mind the circus from Wim Wenders’ film “Wings of Desire” (1987) which I love. I can almost hear the accordion in that scene with the trapeze woman after her practice was done… And I can feel the same melancholy in Hofer’s circus performers that is felt in Wender’s film. The painting shows a Strongman, a Pierrot and a trapeze artist standing against the circus background which looks like a Cubist playground. The forlorn Pierrot in an oversized attire is hugging the woman around the waist and has his hand on the Strongman’s shoulder. The two men are exchanging glances, but the woman is looking into the distance. There is a physical closeness and a connection between the three figures, but on a spiritual, emotional level they are separate, each alone and self-contained. The garish colours that look almost as if the child had chosen them are in stark contrast to the otherwise melancholy mood. I love contrasts such as these! It is the same as painting glitter on your eyelids and putting on bright lipstick when you are actually totally miserable inside.

Perhaps the melancholy of Hofer’s figures lies in the tragic circumstances from the artist’s own life; his father had died when Hofer was only four weeks old, he was then sent to live with his relatives and very soon to an orphanage where he spent a good part of his childhood, he spent three years in a French internment camp during World War I and on a single night in the World War II during an air raid he lost the major part of his life’s work, not to mention that his first wife Matilde died in a concentration camp.