Hein Heckroth

Hein Heckroth (14 April 1901 in Gießen - 7 July 1970 in Amsterdam) was a German painter and art director of stage and film productions. Heckroth was born in 1901 in Giessen, Germany. As a young man, he moved to Frankfurt, where he studied as a painter. He was deeply affected by the prevailing artistic movements of the postwar era, including Surrealism, Expressionism, and Cubism. Heckroth's career quickly skyrocketed, and, at only twenty-three years old, he began designing costumes and sets for Kurt Jooss's pioneering dance company. He achieved renown as a prolific designer of stage productions, including several performances of Jacques Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann and the original production of The Green Table. After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Heckroth's Jewish wife Ada, also an artist, left for Paris with their daughter, Nandi. Heckroth joined them in 1935, and the three moved to Great Britain. There, he reestablished himself as both a painter and art designer, designing the sets and costumes for the first production of Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne in 1936 and the Kurt Weill operetta, A Kingdom for a Cow. During this time, he also began teaching art at Dartington Ha... ()