Claus Hoie, who has explored the potential of watercolor for decades, is especially known for highly original, insightful interpretations of themes that are part visionary, part distilled experience. His paintings balance the impact of expressive, arbitrary color with the impact of graphic energy. The Trygve Lie Gallery exhibition spans 40 years of his resonant work and includes examples of his often symbolic treatments of real and imaginary insects, seafaring subjects, still life and natural phenomena.

Hoie was born in Stavanger, Norway, and emigrated to the United States at age twelve. As a young man, he served in the Merchant Marine as “able-bodied seaman.” Throughout his long career, the sea, its ships, its creatures and its literature have been an important part of his art.

During World War II, he was a member of an elite Norwegian-American battalion in the United States Army, which trained as Mountain Ski Infantry in the event a proposed invasion to liberate Norway transpired. The battalion then served in the European campaigns from the Normandy beaches through the continent to Germany and then finally to Norway at the end of the war. Paintings from this period of his career are now in the Akershus Museum in Oslo.

After the war, he concentrated on formal art training, attending the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, and Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. He experimented with etching and line drawing before concentrating on watercolor. There have been many museum shows devoted to his work across the United States and in Norway, and he is represented in the collections of many museums. A large retrospective of his art was organized by Guild Hall Museum, Long Island, in 2004.

Claus Hoie has received many honors during his career, including awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society.

Phyllis Braff, guest curator for the Claus Hoie exhibition, is an art critic and historian. She has been an art critic for the New York Times, a museum administrator, curator and faculty member, and is past-president of the International Association of Art Critics, USA section.