Edan Milton Hughes (June 4, 1935April 21, 2015) was an American art dealer and collector of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

art. He wrote the definitive work on California artists.

Life

Edan Milton Hughes was born June 4, 1935, in

Maysville, Kentucky Maysville is a home rule-class city in Mason County, Kentucky, United States and is the seat of Mason County. The population was 8,782 as of 2019, making it the 51st-largest city in Kentucky by population. Maysville is on the Ohio River, north ...

. He attended the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

, where his studies were interrupted by the

Korean war , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. The

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

first brought him to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

as a young man, where he remained till his death. During the period of the '60s and '70s in San Francisco he lived in the

Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...

section of the city. Hughes enjoyed playing bridge, and going to the Opera. He was not married and had no children, but enjoyed a vast group of friends in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. He died in San Francisco on April 21, 2015.

Career

Hughes first settled in San Francisco when the Navy brought him there after the war. He was an avid dancer, and found work as a dance instructor, and as a hair stylist in some of the principal San Francisco hotels. He sometimes worked as an assistant to rock promoter Bill Graham and met many of the main rock groups and personalities of the time, including members of the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

Creedence Creedence Clearwater Revival, also referred to as Creedence and CCR, was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band initially consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother, ...

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ac ...

, the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

, and the

Mamas and the Papas The Mamas & the Papas were a folk rock vocal group formed in Los Angeles, California, which recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s. The group consisted of A ...

. He also worked in real estate for several years, an activity which brought him into contact with some of the fine art from the state of California which started a lifelong passion. At the time, there was little interest in such art, and he was able to procure many canvases from some of the best artists, unrecognized at the time, for a pittance. This formed the basis of what became a vast collection of California art. His apartment was covered chock-a-block with California paintings, with many others stacked up with wall space left to show it. His interest as a collector, along with an increasing recognition of the value of California art, combined to turn Hughes into an art dealer of California art of the first order. He also published his monumental reference work "Artists in California, 1786-1940" in 1986 with biographies of over 20,000 California artists, and this work along with Hughes' collection and dealership helped bring California art to the notice of the art world. The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento took an interest, and helped organize and publish revised editions of the work, which is universally recognized as the definitive work in its field.

Publications

Hughes is the author of ''Artists in California, 1786-1940'' (1986). The first edition was published in 1986, and received so many follow up inquiries that he decided to produce a second edition with double the amount of content. The third edition is a biographical dictionary which contains information on over 20,000 Californian artists.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Edan Art in the San Francisco Bay Area Art museums and galleries in San Francisco Writers from San Francisco University of Kentucky alumni 1935 births 2015 deaths

Life

Career

Publications

See also

References

External links