Charles Hinman born 1932 in
Syracuse, New York is an
Abstract Minimalist painter, notable for creating three-dimensional
shaped canvas
Shaped canvases are paintings that depart from the normal flat, rectangular configuration. Canvases may be shaped by altering their outline, while retaining their flatness. An ancient, traditional example is the '' tondo'', a painting on a round p ...
paintings in the mid-1960s.
Early years
Charles Hinman was born in 1932, in Syracuse, New York. He initiated his artistic education at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, now the
Everson Museum of Art Everson may refer to:
People with the surname
* Ben Everson (born 1987), English footballer
* Bill Everson (1906–1966), Welsh international rugby union player
* Cliff Everson, a New Zealand car designer and manufacturer
* Corinna Everson (born ...
, where he attended classes. He went on to complete his BFA in 1955 at
Syracuse University.
Alongside his artistic talent, Charles Hinman was also dedicated to sports. While studying at university he was a professional baseball player for the
Milwaukee Braves in the minor league.
He moved to New York to study at the
Arts Student League before serving two years in the army. Upon his return he was a mechanical drawing teacher at the
Staten Island Academy from 1960 to 1962 and a carpentry shop instructor at the
Woodmere Academy
Lawrence Woodmere Academy, also known as "LWA", and "Woodmere Academy", is an independent school located in Woodmere, New York, United States. It is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools and the New York State Board ...
on Long Island.
New York art scene
In the early 1960s Hinman lived on Coenties Slip in Lower Manhattan where he shared an abandoned sail-making loft with
James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist (November 29, 1933 – March 31, 2017) was an American artist and one of the proponents of the pop art movement. Drawing from his background working in sign painting, Rosenquist's pieces often explored the role of advertising a ...
. It was an ideal art studio offering large open spaces to work at an affordable rent. Along with
Robert Indiana,
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...
,
Jack Youngerman
Jack Albert Youngerman (March 25, 1926 – February 19, 2020) was an American artist known for his constructions and paintings.
Biography
Jack Youngerman was born in 1926 in Webster Groves, Missouri, moving to Louisville, Kentucky in 1929 wi ...
and
Agnes Martin
Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004), was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Mart ...
who resided in the neighbouring buildings, they formed a small artistic community away from the Upper-East side and the
Abstract Expressionists from whom they wished to differentiate themselves.
They did not constitute an art movement as such, but rather a "support and critique family that helped each other go on their individual paths."
Throughout the 1960s they produced works that prefigured
Pop,
Minimal and Feminist Art. In 1965, Charles Hinman and Robert Indiana left Coenties Slip for the Bowery where they shared a building at 2 Spring Street. In 1971, he moved a block away on the Bowery where he settled in an 8000 sq/ft studio where he has remained ever since. Below Hinman's studio was that of
Tom Wesselmann
Thomas K. Wesselmann (February 23, 1931 – December 17, 2004) was an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.
Early years
Wesselmann was born in Cincinnati.
From 1949 to 1951 he atte ...
and above worked
Will Insley
Will Insley (October 15, 1929 – August 12, 2011) was an American painter, architect, and planner of utopian urban models. As a painter of geometric abstraction, he is known for his large-area geometrical picture elements.
Biography
Insley stu ...
, across the street were the studios of
Adolph Gottlieb
Adolph Gottlieb (March 14, 1903 – March 4, 1974) was an American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor and printmaker.
Early life and education
Adolph Gottlieb, one of the "first generation" of Abstract Expressionists, was born in New York ...
and
Roy Lichtenstein.
In 2002, the
New Museum
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
History
The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...
became his neighbor when it was built on the adjacent lot.
Shaped canvas
In the 1960s Charles Hinman played a significant role in redefining the physical shape of paintings. The
shaped canvas
Shaped canvases are paintings that depart from the normal flat, rectangular configuration. Canvases may be shaped by altering their outline, while retaining their flatness. An ancient, traditional example is the '' tondo'', a painting on a round p ...
was born from the desire to break away from the traditional square or rectangular frame of painting. Rather than a formalized medium or window that contained the subject, the contours of the painting became part of the subject itself.
In the mid-1960s several abstract minimalist painters were experimenting with its possibilities, the most famous of which is
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City.
Biography
Frank Stella was born in Ma ...
. Charles Hinman drove the concept further by pushing the canvas out from the wall; his works were a form of hybrid between painting and sculpture.
This type of painting is known as a three-dimensional shaped canvas. As early as 1963-64 Charles Hinman created sculptural paintings with protruding geometric and undulating forms. While
Sven Lukin and
Richard Smith were also experimenting with the use of the three-dimensional canvas around the same time,
Charles Hinman's defining particularity was his focus on the illusion of space
and subtly suggested volume, embracing the use of color, shadow and reflection. He was influenced by
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...
in his flat and contrasting
Hard-edge use of color but with the objective of generating and accentuating a perception of volume.
In the subsequent years until the early 1970s, Hinman examined the possibilities offered by this new medium: strongly protruding canvases, geometric and sensual profiles, color contrasts, color reflections on the adjacent wall, shadows, monochrome canvases.
Early recognition
It was through
James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist (November 29, 1933 – March 31, 2017) was an American artist and one of the proponents of the pop art movement. Drawing from his background working in sign painting, Rosenquist's pieces often explored the role of advertising a ...
, that Charles Hinman caught the attention of prominent New York gallery owners and museum directors who visited the studio they shared.
Two exhibitions in 1964-65 introduced Hinman's work to the grand public and to critical attention; "Seven New Artists" at the
Sidney Janis
Sidney Janis (July 8, 1896 – November 23, 1989) was a wealthy clothing manufacturer and art collector who opened an art gallery in New York in 1948. His gallery quickly gained prominence, for he not only exhibited work by the Abstract Expressio ...
Gallery and a solo exhibition at the Richard Feigen Gallery. In 1965
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City.
Biography
Frank Stella was born in Ma ...
and
Henry Geldzahler
Henry Geldzahler (July 9, 1935 – August 16, 1994) was a Belgian-born American curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a historian and critic of modern art. He is best known for his work at the Metropolitan Museum ...
included Hinman's work in their group show "Shape and Structure" at
Tibor de Nagy, alongside
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism (a term he nonetheless stridently disavowed).Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In ...
,
Larry Bell,
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism.
LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...
,
Carl Andre
Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures and for the suspected murder of contemporary and wife, Ana Mendieta. His sculptures range from large public art ...
and Will Insley.
His work was shown at the
Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
's landmark show "Young America 1965" and the following year in "United States 1670-1966". Hinman was represented by Richard Feigen who showed his work at his New York and Chicago galleries. While major museums such as the
MOMA, the
Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
and the
Albright–Knox Art Gallery
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...
soon bought his work for their permanent collections, his paintings also found a home in the collection of
Nelson Rockefeller. From 1971 to 1973 the Parisian gallerist
Denise René
Denise René (born Denise Bleibtreu; June 1913 – 9 July 2012) was a French art gallerist specializing in kinetic art and op art.
Life and work
Denise René took as her guiding principle the idea that art must invent new paths in order to exist ...
showed his work at her Paris and New York galleries.
Artistic concepts
Process
Throughout his career, Charles Hinman has developed a methodical process by which he creates his works. First, he draws sketches of the final shape he wishes to create. He then designs a minute blueprint of the frameworks he needs to construct to achieve this shape, comprising all the angles and lengths of the frame.
His works are often composed of a juxtaposition of shaped canvases, which he bolts together into an integral form. He adds the third dimension to his paintings by fixing protuberant forms to the underpinnings. These shapes push the canvas out from the wall and create the volume in his paintings. He then paints various planes of his work in order to create volume and to play with the eye of the viewer. He sometimes paints the reverse side of the canvas which sits off the wall, so as to produce a halo effect around his work. The use of light and shadows as well as contrasting colors and reflections play an important role in his creations.
6 dimensions
Hinman's work focuses on the perception of volume as opposed to literal space. He uses an array of techniques to create volume in the eye of the viewer. It is a form of ''
trompe-l'œil
''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...
'' that constantly evolves depending on the spectator's vantage point.
Hinman describes his concept as "My concept of my work is dynamic---never static. I think of my paintings as occupying a 6-dimensionnal space(…) the three dimensions of space and one each of time, light and color." According to him, space and time imply movement and the change of light: "As light moves across the object, the forms and the color appear to change with the rearrangement of the shadows. (…)The brightness causes a surface to move forward—the darkness causes the surface to recede. Further, the choice of adjacent colors causes a sensation of motion of the surfaces"
Series
Throughout his career, Hinman has continuously created works in series. His early works from the mid-1960s are voluptuous and organic with strongly contrasting hard-edge colors and projecting forms. He then moved to a two-dimensional, minimalist and geometric style in the early 1970s. By the late 1970s he was exploring the potential of arched "double curved" profiles to shape his canvases. These structures became increasingly complex throughout the 1980s, reaching for scale and color in leaf-like arrangements.
Since 2000, he has returned to a pure and minimal style working with light as much as with color. "A single facet or canvas may have its own color, or the shadow across it may serve as color (…) Sometimes the color solely belongs to the edge of a work, or so it seems, until one notices that Hinman has painted the back (…) He is not just shaping an object, but also taking it out from the wall."
The Shaped Canvas revisited
In 1964, the
Guggenheim Museum
The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Museums in this group include:
Locations
Americas
* The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...
organised the show "The Shaped Canvas".
Laurence Alloway, the curator of the exhibition decided to focus on two-dimensional Minimal works only, de facto excluding three dimensional as well as Pop art works from this movement.
This initial selection has been questioned and broadened over the years by several retrospective group shows that hosted a wider variety of shaped canvases.
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City.
Biography
Frank Stella was born in Ma ...
's 1965 group show "Shape and Structure" immediately refuted Olloway's position by including Charles Hinman's paintings.
In 1979, The
Visual Arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...
Museum in New York organised a show named "Shaped Paintings". It opened the scope of the shaped canvas to Pop Art works as well as to three-dimensional shaped canvases. Charles Hinman's work was presented alongside that of
Kenneth Noland
Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was though ...
,
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...
,
Robert Mangold
Robert Mangold (born October 12, 1937) is an American minimalist artist. He is also father of film director and screenwriter James Mangold.
Early life and education
Mangold was born in North Tonawanda, New York, North Tonawanda, New York (s ...
, Bernard Venet and
Tom Wesselmann
Thomas K. Wesselmann (February 23, 1931 – December 17, 2004) was an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.
Early years
Wesselmann was born in Cincinnati.
From 1949 to 1951 he atte ...
. In 2014, Charles Hinman was included in the group show "Shaped Canvas Revisited" at the Luxembourg and Dayan Gallery in New York. This exhibition, which celebrated the fifty years of the original Guggenheim show, places Hinman among the fathers of the shaped canvas movement alongside artists such as
Lucio Fontana,
Kenneth Noland
Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was though ...
,
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City.
Biography
Frank Stella was born in Ma ...
and
Tom Wesselmann
Thomas K. Wesselmann (February 23, 1931 – December 17, 2004) was an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.
Early years
Wesselmann was born in Cincinnati.
From 1949 to 1951 he atte ...
.
Reception
In recent years, Charles Hinman's work has garnered increasing attention both for his contemporary as for his "modern" (historic) works. According to some critics, his latest series of "Gems" and "Black Paintings" are arguably amongst his most interesting works.
In 2013, the
Marc Straus Gallery in New York organized a retrospective covering the six decades of his career.
Documentaries and videos
* "The Art of Charles Hinman", Vimeo.com, Adam Ben Cohen, http://vimeo.com/89413358
* "In the Studio with Charles Hinman", Vimeo.com, Ghostly International, Will Calcutt, http://vimeo.com/109732185
* "Charles Hinman", Vimeo.com, Thomas Auriol, http://vimeo.com/112290770
Selected solo shows
* 2017 Charles Hinman - Shaped Paintings. WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC
* 2013 Charles Hinman - 6 Decades. MARC STRAUS, New York, NY, USA
* 2011 GEMS at the
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, USA
* 2004
Boca Raton Museum of Art
Founded by artists, the Boca Raton Museum of Art was established in 1950 as the Art Guild of Boca Raton. The organization has grown to encompass an Art School, Guild, Store, and Museum with permanent collections of contemporary art, photography, ...
, FL, USA
* 1980
Everson Museum of Art Everson may refer to:
People with the surname
* Ben Everson (born 1987), English footballer
* Bill Everson (1906–1966), Welsh international rugby union player
* Cliff Everson, a New Zealand car designer and manufacturer
* Corinna Everson (born ...
, Syracuse, NY, USA
* 1971-5 Galerie Denise René, New York, NY, USA
* 1967 Richard Feigen Gallery, New York, NY, USA
* 1966 Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Source:
Selected group shows
* 2014 Shaped Canvas Revisited, Luxembourg and Dayan, New York, NY, USA
* 2004 Blast from the Past, Pace Editions, New York, NY, USA
* 1989 American Painting Since the Death of Painting, curated by Donald Kuspit, Kuznetsky Most Exhibition Hall, Moscow, USSR
* 1967 Whitney Annual Exhibition, Whitney Museum, New York, NY, USA
* 1965 Recent Acquisitions, MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York, NY, USA
* 1965 Shape and Structure, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Source:
Selected institutional collections
* Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
* Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
* Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA
* Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, USA
* Musee' des Beaux Arts de l'Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
* Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
* Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA
Source:
Selected corporate collections
*Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY, USA
*The Rockefeller Collection, New York, NY, USA
Source:
Selected awards and honors
* Guggenheim Fellowship
* Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
* Lee Krasner Award
Source:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinman, Charles
American abstract artists
Minimalist artists
Artists from Syracuse, New York
1932 births
Living people