Margaret Hooks

Margaret Hooks (1945–2021) was an Irish-born author and journalist,^[1] best known for her books and writing about women, art and photography,  including a celebrated biography of the Italian-born photographer Tina Modotti,^[2] and books and articles about Surrealism and artists related to the Surrealist movement.

Margaret Hooks
Born	June 07, 1945 Belfast, N. Ireland
Died	July 19, 2021 Xàbia (Jávea), Spain
Nationality	Irish
Citizenship	Ireland, United Kingdom
Occupation(s)	Author and journalist
Years active	1979-2021
Spouse	David Gibb ​ (m. 1966⁠–⁠1967)​ Ron Robinson (1968-1974) Michael Tangeman ​ ​ (m. 1985⁠–⁠2021)​

Early life

Hooks was born at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital, the eldest of six children. She attended Princess Gardens School (now Hunterhouse College) as a day scholarship student.^{[citation needed]}

Activism

 

Women in Solidarity for Peace, International Women's Day March 1975, Sydney, Australia.

In Sydney, Hooks became active in leftwing and feminist circles. She was hired in 1974 by the Sydney-based anti-war campaign organization AICD (the Association for International Cooperation & Disarmament, now known as the People for Nuclear Disarmament NSW^[3]) to direct its Latin America section^[4], lobbying Australian Senators and Members of Parliament to enable resettlement of political asylum seekers fleeing repression from military regimes in South American countries, particularly Chile. She also served as Treasurer and Events Coordinator of the Chile Solidarity Committee in Sydney from 1974-1977 and on behalf of AICD organized visits to Australia by peace delegations from Latin America and Asia. A co-founder of Women In Solidarity for Peace,^[5] she also organized the participation of a delegation of Vietnamese women peace activists to the demonstration/celebration of International Women’s Day in Sydney on March 8, 1975.

Hooks co-authored and published “Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Power^[6]”, a booklet critical of doctors and administrators at two P.S.I. clinics in Sydney.

Journalism

Hooks began a career in journalism upon relocating to Mexico in 1979,^[7] writing freelance articles about conditions for women in Mexico and Guatemala for international feminist publications, including the UK’s Spare Rib magazine and Off Our Backs in the United States, while also doing volunteer work on human rights in Central America for non-governmental activist organizations based in London and Mexico City.

In 1984, she was given press credentials by British journalist Duncan Campbell, then with the London-based City Limits magazine, to travel to the Guatemalan highlands in order to report on rights violations and atrocities being committed against that country’s indigenous population by the Guatemalan military^[8] in its counterinsurgency war against leftist guerrillas. Her reporting from that trip was published in The National Times of Australia and specialist journals, including Cultural Survival Quarterly and others, launching Hooks into a full-time journalism career.

By late-1984, she had become Mexico Correspondent for The Sunday Tribune^[9] of Dublin, Ireland, while working as Managing Editor of the Encuentro bi-weekly political supplement of Mexico’s sole English-language newspaper, The Mexico City News.

In the immediate aftermath of the September 1985 Mexico City earthquake, she was named as Mexico-based correspondent for Ireland’s leading newspaper, The Irish Times.^[9] Hooks covered breaking news and wrote feature articles for the paper from 1985-1991,^[10] filing stories from Mexico and Central America, with a focus on the region’s armed conflicts and counterinsurgency campaigns and their impact on civilian populations, particularly in Guatemala.

Her by-lined stories from the region also appeared in a number of U.S. and British news publications, including The Guardian and The Observer newspapers in the UK, San Francisco-based Pacific News Service, The San Francisco Examiner, The San Diego Union, The Houston Chronicle, The Miami Herald, and others.

After a break from journalism to focus on book-writing, in 1996 Hooks became Mexico Correspondent for New York-based ARTnews and on relocating to Miami, Florida, in 1998 she was named a Contributing Editor of the magazine. Her writing on the visual arts and culture also appeared in a variety of other publications, including Grand Street,^[11] AfterImage, Aperture, Vogue, Elle, The Observer Magazine, The Daily Beast^[12] and BOMB magazine.^[13]

Books

 

Hooks, Margaret.Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary (1st Hardcover ed.),1993, Harper Collins, London and San Francisco. ISBN 9780044408796

In her lifetime, Hooks published eight books of non-fiction, mainly focused on topics or subjects involving women, artists and the Surrealist movement. She also translated into English the Spanish-language autobiography of Austrian-born psychoanalyst Marie Langer, From Vienna to Managua: Journey of a Psychoanalyst,^[14] published in 1989 by Free Association Books (London).

Guatemalan Women Speak,^[15] chronicling women impacted by the military repression and genocide against indigenous peoples in Guatemala during the 1980s, was published in 1991 in London by CIIR. The book was released in a second edition in 1993, published in Washington, D.C. by EPICA.^[16]

The acclaimed Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary,^[17] about the Italian-born photographer and left-wing activist Tina Modotti, was published in 1993 by Harper Collins and deemed “a definitive biography" by the New York Times.^[18] In the book, Hooks "detailed [Modotti's] life as an artist, activist and woman at the height of Mexican muralism, where Bohemia met political revolution through a whirlwind of artistic expression.^[19]" British feminist art historian and filmmaker Laura Mulvey lauded the book as a "carefully researched and fascinating biography" that showed "how legend and myth became an inextricable part of Modotti's afterlife and thus unavoidably part of her story."^[20]

Shortlisted in 1994 for the Kraszna-Krausz book award for writing on photography and for the annual Infinity award by the International Center for Photography, the book has been published in eight languages.^[1] After a first paperback edition^[21] by HarperCollins, the book was again reprinted in 2000 by Da Capo Press in a special paperback edition titled Tina Modotti: Radical Photographer. In 2017, the Madrid-based publisher of books on art and photography, La Fábrica, published new reprints of the book in Spanish^[22] and English,^[23] distributed in the United States by D.A.P./Artbook.^[24]

A Hooks authored two additional monographs on Modotti; the first, titled Tina Modotti (Aperture Masters of Photography), published in 1999 by the Aperture Foundation^[25] with a tri-lingual co-edition by Könemann Verlags GmbH;^[26] and the second, titled Tina Modotti, first published in 2002 as part of the Phaidon 55's series,^[27] and reprinted in 2005 under the same title in large format.^[28]

Frida Kahlo: Portraits of an Icon^[29] was published in a 2002 co-edition by Bloomsbury, London, and Turner Libros, Madrid. The book was published in Spanish that same year by Turner as Frida Kahlo: La Gran Ocultadora^[30]. 

 

Hooks, Margaret. Surreal Lovers: Eight Women Integral to the Life of Max Ernst, 2018 (2nd ed.), La Fabrica, Madrid. ISBN 978-8417048006

Surreal Eden: Edward James and Las Pozas^[31] was published in 2007by Princeton Architectural Press, and tells the story of Edward James,^[32] the "wealthy British surrealist-art benefactor turned rural Mexican architect, demi-god and dreamer",^[33] patron of Surrealists Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte and friend of the artist Leonora Carrington, who over a period of 40 years built a surrealist sculpture garden at Las Pozas, high in the Sierra Huasteca mountains of Mexico. The book also published in Spanish by Turner Mexico that same year, under the title Edward James y Las Pozas: Un sueño surrealista en la selva mexicana.^[34]

Manel Armengol: Herbarium,^[35] a monograph of the work of Catalán photographer Manel Armengol, was also published in 2007 by Turner.

Hooks’ last book, Surreal Lovers: Eight Women Integral to the Life of Max Ernst,^[36] published in 2017 by La Fábrica and reprinted in a second edition in 2018, focuses on eight women who influenced the life and work of Surrealist painter Max Ernst. The book chronicles the relationships between Ernst and Leonora Carrington, Peggy Guggenheim, Dorothea Tanning, Luise Straus, Marie-Berthe Aurenche, Leonor Fini, Meret Oppenheim and Gala Dalí.

Death

Hooks died at home in Xàbia (Jávea), Spain, on July 19, 2021,^[1] of cancer.

References

1. Campbell, Duncan (August 10, 2021). "Margaret Hooks obituary". The Guardian. pp. J-10. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
2. "Margaret Hooks obituary: Irish chronicler of Mexican life and art". The Irish Times. July 31, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
3. "PND-History". People for Nuclear Disarmament, NSW Branch, Australia. Retrieved December 20, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
4. Campbell, Duncan (August 6, 2021). "Margaret Hooks obituary". The Guardian. pp. J-10. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
5. "Women in Solidarity for Peace", documents related to participation of Vietnamese women peace activists in the 1975 International Women's Day March, Sydney Australia, File:Women in Solidarity for Peace - AICD - 1974-75 20210810 0001.pdf
6. Hooks, Margaret (1977), ABORTION: OUR BODIES, THEIR POWER, pamphlet on abortion services and reproductive rights in Australia, 1977 (PDF), retrieved 2022-12-20
7. McMasters, Merry (August 25, 2021). "Blog: Falleció la autora irlandesa Margaret Hooks". La Jornada. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
8. Campbell, Duncan (August 10, 2021). "Margaret Hooks obituary". The Guardian. pp. J-10. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
9. "Margaret Hooks obituary: Irish chronicler of Mexican life and art". The Irish Times. July 31, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
10. Hooks, Margaret. "Archive". irishtimes.com. The Irish Times DAC. Retrieved December 16, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
11. Hooks, Margaret (Spring 2004). "Edward James's Las Pozas". Grand Street (73): 180–86. doi:10.2307/25008752. JSTOR 25008752 – via JSTOR.
12. Hooks, Margaret (December 6, 2018). "Surrealist Master Leonora Carrington's Guide to Mexico". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 18, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
13. Hooks, Margaret (December 10, 2014). "A.G. Porta". BOMB. Retrieved December 18, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
14. Langer, Marie (1989). From Vienna to Managua: Journey of a Psychoanalyst. Translated by Hooks, Margaret (1st ed.). London: Free Association Books. ISBN 9781853430565.
15. Hooks, Margaret (1991). Guatmalan Women Speak (1st ed.). London: CIIR. ISBN 9780918346124.
16. Hooks, Margaret (1993). Guatemalan Women Speak (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: EPICA. ISBN 9780918346124.
17. Hooks, Margaret (1993). Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary (1st ed.). London and San Francisco: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780044408796.
18. Lippincott, Robin (April 17, 1994). "Through a Lens, Radically". The New York Times. pp. Section 7, p 18. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
19. Silverman, Rena (August 24, 2017). "Tina Modotti, Behind the Camera and Out of Weston's Shadow". The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
20. Mulvey, Laura (January 15, 1994). "Artist who liked a Party". The Guardian. p. 25. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
21. Hooks, Margaret (1993). Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary (Paperback ed.). London and San Francisco: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780044409250.
22. Hooks, Margaret (2017). Tina Modotti. Fotógrafa y Revolucionaria (in Spanish). Madrid: La Fábrica. ISBN 9788416248841.
23. Hooks, Margaret (2017). Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary. Madrid: La Fábrica. ISBN 9788416248834.
24. Von Klemperer, Liz (August 2, 2017). "Book Review: Tina Modotti: Photographer & Revolutionary". Musée Magazine. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
25. Hooks, Margaret (1999). Tina Modotti (Masters of Photography). New York: Aperture Foundation. ISBN 9780893818234.
26. Hooks, Margaret (1999). Tina Modotti (Masters of Photography). Köln: Könemann Verlags GmbH. ISBN 9783829028882.
27. Hooks, Margaret (2002). Tina Modotti (Phaidon 55's) (1st ed.). New York and London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 9780714841564.
28. Hooks, Margaret (2005). Tina Modotti (Phaidon 55's) (2nd ed.). New York and London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 9780714845661.
29. Hooks, Margaret (2003). Frida Kahlo: Portraits of an Icon (1st ed.). London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9780747566830.
30. Hooks, Margaret (2002). Frida Kahlo: La Gran Ocultadora (in Spanish). Mexico City and Madrid: Turner Publicaciones. ISBN 9788475067698.
31. Hooks, Margaret (2007). Surreal Eden: Edward James and Las Pozas (1st ed.). New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 9781568986128.
32. McMasters, Merry (February 8, 2008). "Margaret Hooks desmenuza el cruce de la vida y el arte de Edward James". La Jornada. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
33. Baldwin, Rosecrans (January 30, 2007). "Surreal Eden: Margaret Hooks". The Morning News. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
34. Hooks, Margaret (2002). Edward James y Las Pozas: Un sueño surrealista en la selva mexicana (in Spanish). Mexico City and Madrid: Turner Publicaciones. ISBN 9788475066714.
35. Hooks, Margaret (2008). Manel Armengol: Herbarium (1st ed.). Madrid: Turner. ISBN 9788475067841.
36. Hooks, Magaret (2017). Surreal Lovers: Eight Women Integral to the Life of Max Ernst (1st ed.). Madrid: La Fábrica. ISBN 978-84-17048-00-6.