He described himself as an “abstract realist.” Hogue’s reasoning was “naturalism is not possible because every artist recreates a realistic landscape and changes it to fit their own idea of what the view really looks like.”
Hogue’s formative years took place in Denton, Texas. His young adult life was spent studying at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and working for advertising firms in New York City as a designer of calligraphy and lettering. He returned to Texas in 1925 where he began to paint full time. Hogue taught life drawing at the Texas State College for Women and went on to be the head of the art department at Hockaday Junior College in Dallas.
In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Hogue traveled extensively to Taos, New Mexico and the rest of the southwest. He loved the art colony in Taos whose artists, Ernest Blumenschein, W. Herbert Dunton and Jose Imhof became his friends. The Indian tribes’ of New Mexico view that man needed to respect nature resonated with his philosophy.
During WWII, he became a technical illustrator in defense for North American Aviation. Hogue went on to become the head of the art department at the University of Tulsa. He kept this position for the next 18 years. After stepping down as the head, Hogue taught drawing and painting until 1968. Retirement was spent at a farm and studio near Tulsa.
Hogue maintained many associations during his productive career. He was part of the Dallas Nine, a group who created realistic pieces influenced by the southwest .The Dallas Nine movement ended with the beginning of Abstract Expressionism after WWII. The Federal Art Project hired him to paint murals for the Treasury section from 1939 -1941. Next to his Dust Bowl paintings, the Big Bend series received the most recognition. He still painted in a realist style but added abstract elements to his work.
Hogue’s works are in major private and corporate collections and a number of public collections, including the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.) and the Musee National d’Art Moderne. (Paris).