John Hultberg, Large John Hultberg SF Bay Area Artist Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting, 1998

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John Hultberg
Oil on canvas
Panorama of pictures. 1998
Hand signed lower right, J. Hultberg ‘98.
Artist, date, and title … Read more John Hultberg
Oil on canvas
Panorama of pictures. 1998
Hand signed lower right, J. Hultberg ‘98.
Artist, date, and title written on verso.
Canvas 25.5”H x 35”W, Frame 26”H x 35.5”W.
Oil painting depicting a mosaic of photographs overlooking an abstract geometric landscape.

John Hultberg (1922 – 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist and Abstract realist painter. Early in his career he was related to the Bay Area Figurative Movement; he was also a lecturer and playwright.
John Hultberg was born in 1922 in Berkeley, California. Hultberg attended Fresno State College, graduating in 1943. During World War II, he was a Navy lieutenant. After the war, his education at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) (now the San Francisco Art Institute) was funded by the G.I. Bill. His teachers included Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still and he was a classmate of Richard Diebenkorn, who was also a mentor, James Budd Dixon, Walter Kuhlman, Frank Lobdell, and George Stillman, which whom he created a portfolio of 17 lithographs. This 1948 portfolio, titled Drawings, has been acknowledged as a landmark in Abstract Expressionist printmaking. The group has been referred to as "The Sausalito Six," because most, lived in Sausalito, north of San Francisco. Many of the "First Generation" artists in this West Coast movement were avid fans of Abstract Expressionism, and worked in that manner, until several of them abandoned non-objective painting in favor of working with the figure. Among these First Generation Bay Area Figurative School artists were: David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, Rex Ashlock, Elmer Bischoff, Glenn Wessels, Wayne Thiebaud, Raimonds Staprans, and James Weeks. The "Bridge Generation" included the artists: Henrietta Berk, Nathan Oliveira, Theophilus Brown, Paul Wonner, Roland Petersen, John Hultberg, and Frank Lobdell. He was also a contemporary of Clay Spohn and David Park. Hultberg studied at the Art Students League of New York beginning in 1952. Hultberg was first married to Hilary Blech. In 1961 Hultberg met fellow artist Lynne Mapp Drexler at The Artist's Club in New York. Artists there discussed abstract expressionism. Drexler and Hultberg were married and three years traveled and lived in Mexico, the West Coast and Hawaii. Then, they lived at New York's Chelsea Hotel in the late 1960s. Seeking a relaxing environment, the couple bought a house off the coast of Maine on Monhegan Island in 1971 and split their time between New York City and Maine, particularly spending the summers at their island house.
By 1983, Drexler moved year-around and permanently near Lighthouse Hill on Monhegan Island, an artists' haven off the coast of Maine, where she had spent most summers since 1963. Hultberg did not like to live year-round, particularly during the harsh winters, at Monhegan Island and moved to Portland in 1985.
Hultberg primarily made Abstract expressionist paintings that were minimalist and dark, and also made Surrealist invented landscapes with "linear perspectives and angular shapes." Hultberg was described as an Abstract realism, who combines "abstract" and "concrete" with attention to detail, bold color use, and strong design.
In 1952 he was introduced at the Museum of Modern Art in a show of new artists. He lived for one year in Paris between 1954 and 1955 and gained a reputation there for his work. In 1955 he won the Corcoran Biennial first prize in Washington. His paintings were influenced by his time spent at Monhegan Island, and his career thrived after he moved to Portland. His work was shown in many galleries, including the Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York City Martha Jackson Gallery and the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, he gave lectures, and in 1985 he had an exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art. A play that he wrote was produced the University of Maine theatre department. He published the book Sole Witness, Vagabondage, a Paris Odyssey (1953–1955), his poetry and other books. He taught art in Hawaii and the West Coast. He was teaching at the Art Students League and was a full-time resident in New York by 1990. He taught until the week of his death at the Art Students League. His work was part of a group show at Aucocisco in Portland in February 2005, at which time he was living in New York City.
Hultberg made a name for himself in the 1950s with powerful landscapes, fractured into slabs under ominous horizons; multiplicities of bizarre, huddled shapes; and dense, semi abstract urban wastelands dappled with harsh brilliance and vague human touches. Their air of mystery and forceful use of color earned him awards at exhibitions that began in the 1950s and continued for five decades.

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Guggenheim Museum, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Portland Museum of Art, Maine
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art
Whitney Museum of American Art See less