Fredric Hobbs


Fredric Hobbs was an American artist and filmmaker. He pioneered the art form, ART ECO. His work has been showcased at museums and galleries internationally.

Biography

Fredric Hobbs was born in Philadelphia on December 30, 1931. He attended Menlo School in Menlo Park California and in 1953 earned B.A. in History from Cornell University. After service as an Air Force Officer, Hobbs maintained a studio in Madrid where he attended the Academia de San Fernando de Bellas Artes. In recent years, his studio has been located in San Francisco and Carmel, California.
Since the 1950s, the artist's work has concerned spiritual and environmental consciousness. In 1963, Hobbs created a radical new automobile art called "Parade Sculpture". This concept had its origin in ancient religious processions and self-propelled tableaux. During the 60s, three parade pieces removed art from its museum environment, thereby confronting a mass audience under circumstances of everyday life. Driveable sculpture was exhibited in New York, California and as part of the famous national traveling show entitled "The Highway".
In the early 1970s, Fredric Hobbs pioneered another art form known as ART ECO. ART ECO combines environmental technology, fine art, solar/nomadic architecture, and interactive communications with an ecologically balanced lifestyle.
Hobbs also wrote and produced four films, Troika, , Alabama Flats and Godmonster of Indian Flats.
Godmonster of Indian Flats didn't get a theatrical run, but was released on DVD by Something Weird Video in 2001.
In 1978, with Warren Hinckle, Hobbs wrote and illustrated "The Richest Place on Earth," a history of Nevada's Comstock Lode in the 1860s and '70s, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Once an owner of the Silver Dollar Hotel in Virginia City, NV, Hobbs has had a long and multifaceted relationship with Virginia City and environs.
Hobbs died on April 25, 2018, in Monterey County, California.

Filmography