John Hultberg

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 and was also a lecturer and playwright. 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 (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, with 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." He was also a contemporary of Clay Spohn and David Park. Hultberg studied at the Art Students League of New York beginning in 1952 and 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 when he won the Corcoran Biennial first prize in Washington. His paintings were influenced by his time spent at Monhegan Island, Maine 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 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), 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.

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John Hultberg

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