The distinguished artist John Hultberg,a strikingly good-looking and articulate man who should have been wildly successful, was not helped by a self-destructive instinct and an art that was slightly askew from his times. To understand how his art explored realities that are only now coming into being but which he instinctively anticipated we ahve to see what his colleagues were practicing and the sources of Hultberg's work in the history of western art.Author or co-author of more than thirteen books and fifty articles on art, culture, poetry, and theology, Dr. Harry Rand serves as Senior Curator, Cultural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. He was formerly Chairman, Department of 20th Century Painting and Sculpture , National Museum of American Art. Dr. Rand has contributed to over thirty museum exhibitions and catalogues, has published numerous exhibition and book reviews, has lectured and taught at prestigious universities internationally, and is frequently cited in major sources.Dr. Rand was the first art historian to participate in the annual Davos Conference of the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland and the World Economic Forum meetings in Washington. He was a Founding Council member of the World Arts Council and subsequent Steering Committee member. He has served on the Board of Directors, World Society for the Prevention of Trade in Stolen Art; the Austrian International Art Institute and its successor, the museum KunstHausWien, Vienna, Austria; the Museum Committee, Committee for the Alfred H. Barr, Jr. award for museum scholarship, and the Committee for the Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award for the College Art Association. Has served as a consultant to: The World Bank; Exodus Foundation; City of Phoenix, Arizona; Milwaukee Art Museum; the Cosanti Foundation; City of Fall River; National Academy of Sciences; Virlane Foundation; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Katz & Ranzman, etc. At the Smithsonian he served on the Provost's Committee on Human Studies.Interdisciplinary Studies Program Advisory Committee, Program Committee for the Smithsonian 150th Birthday, and was Editorial Advisor, Smithsonian Studies in American Art.
John Hultberg's distinguished career spans over the five decades with numerous exhibitions in the United States and abroad. His dark moody landscapes incorporating architectural and figurative elements almost belie a painting category. Considered a maverick painter, he forged a very original style of his own, which some have called Apocalyptic, Surreal, or Visionary.
Born in 1922 in Berkeley, California of Swedish parents, he attended Fresno State College where he earned a B.A. degre in English Literature. After serving as lieutenant with the United States Navy in the Pacific, he entered the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, where he studied painting with Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. He came to New York City in 1949 to study at the Art Student League with Will Barnet and Morris Kantor.
In 1954 he relocated to Paris where he was to join other expatriate artists. He exhibited in Europe and there met the art dealer Martha Jackson, who invited him to become part of her newly established international gallery in New York where he exhibited for over 20 years.
In 1955, Hultberg's career was officially launched with the award of First Prize for Oil Painting at the Corcoran Gallery Biennial in Washington D.C. Frequently reviewed in such publications as The New York Times, The Herald Tribune and Art News, Hultberg's work is represented in over 150 museums and public collections throughout the United States and abroad. These include The Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; The Oakland Museum, The de Young Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in California; The Corcoran Gallery, The Hirshhorn and The National Museum of American Art in London; The Museum of Modern Art in Malmo, Sweden; and The Salon de Mai in Paris.
Among other honors and awards, he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Ford Foundation Fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts grants, three Pollack-Krasner Foundation grants and a Lee Krasner grant.
John Hultberg's personal papers, photographs, correspondence, writings, interviews, critical reviews, essays, monographs and poetry are on microfilm at the Archives of American Art in New York, Boston and San Francisco and at the Pompidou Archives in Paris.
by Dr. Harry Rand
Senior Curator
Smithsonian Institute
Speaking about American Artist John Hultberg
B.A. English Literature 1943 (1922-2005)
