Stunning surrealist painting by Bay Area Figurative artist, John Hultberg (1922-2005).
War Night, 1956.
Gouache on illustration board measures an impressive 30 x 40 inches; 34 x 44 inches in a wormy chestnut wood frame. Excellent condition with no damage or conservation.
Signed and daed lower left. Gallery labels en verso. Originally offered by Martha Jackson Gallery, NYC.
John Hultberg was born in Berkeley, California in 1922. He studied at the California School of Fine Arts with Clay Spohn, Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko.
Hultberg made his mark with dramatic, often dark, landscapes and interiors interspersed with recognizable imagery and grounded by an obvious horizon line. His paintings and prints take viewers through a vortex into compartmentalized apocalyptic and alien lands (often inhabited by demons or otherworldly beings), where occasional uncluttered expanses create windows into the unknown.
His works were very prophetic, with pollution and environment issues.
Hulberg's works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York; Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, and the University of Arizona.
Birth place: Berkeley, CA
Addresses: NYC
Profession: Abstract painter
Studied: Fresno State Col. (B.A., 1943); Calif. Sch. Fine Arts, 1947-49; ASL, 1949-51.
Exhibited: WMAA, 1955-63; Martha Jackson Gal., NYC, 1955-72 (solos); Corcoran Gal. biennials, 1955-65 (6 times; with gold med. in 1955); ICA Gal., London, Eng., 1956 (solo); Gal. Dragon, Paris, 1956-71 (solos); Oakland Mus, Calif, 1960; PAFA, 1960-66 (4 times); NAD, 1972 (Benjamin Altman landscape prize). Other awards: Am. Fedn. Arts-Ford Found. grant, 1964.
Work: MMA; MoMA; NMAA; Guggenheim Mus.; Albright-Knox Mus., Buffalo, NY; Stedlijk Mus., Eindhoven; Portland (Me.) Mus. A.; Hirshhorn Mus. Commissions: paintings of Newport News Shipyard, for Fortune mag., 1957.
Comments: First came to Monhegan Island (Me.) in 1962, living and painting there year-'round for a number of years. Of the island he said, I don't copy what I see, but Monhegan does seep into my work." Preferred medium: oils. Teaching: ASL.
Sources: WW73; Curtis, Curtis, and Lieberman, 47, 183; Falk, Exh. Record Series.