About Hoppe

Tommy Hoppe (b. 1977, Melbourne, Australia) is an artist and theorist whose work fuses color, music, and geometry into a unified cultural language. He is the creator of the CR1 System, a visual–musical framework developed over nearly three decades of private research, experimentation, and practice.

Hoppe’s career began in an unconventional way: after receiving multiple full scholarships to leading U.S. art schools, he chose instead to teach himself, spending five years in seclusion in a barn in upstate New York. There he wrote 24 books of theory, studying nature directly and analyzing masterworks through prints and texts. This period formed the foundation of CR1—a system that links the twelve tones of the chromatic scale with twelve fundamental colors, extending into chords, modality, timbre, and octave structures.

His work spans graphite drawing, oil painting, theory plates, and prototypes such as the CR1 Mode Dial and piano keyboard adaptations. He has produced over forty-eight handwritten research volumes, hundreds of abstract works, and conducted experiments exploring the emotional resonance of color–music translation.

Hoppe has lectured at St. Bonaventure College and the Chelsea Art Museum, exhibited internationally, and published Symphonic Chromatic Theory (2007). His work is held in private and permanent collections, including over forty pieces acquired by a single New York collector and a permanent placement in Shanghai.

He currently lives and works in Atlanta, preparing to publish CR1, scale experimental studies, and present this lifelong project through lectures, workshops, and exhibitions.