Fritz Bultman (April 4, 1919 – July 20, 1985) was an American
abstract expressionist
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
painter, sculptor, and
collagist and a member of the
New York School of artists.
Biography
A. Fred Bultman was the second child and only son of A. Fred and Pauline Bultman.
His family was prominent in
, where his father owned a Catholic funeral company. By the age of thirteen he was interested in art, and worked with
Morris Graves
Morris Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysticism, ...
, who was a family friend. As a high school junior in 1935 Fritz went to study in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
for two years,
[PAR](_blank)
/ref> and there boarded with Maria Hofmann, the wife of artist and teacher Hans Hofmann. After returning to the United States he studied with Hofmann in New York City and Provincetown
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. Despite his father's wishes that he become an architect, with Hofmann's encouragement he decided instead to continue his study of art. In 1944 he bought a house in Provincetown, and thenceforth Bultman and his wife Jeanne divided their time between Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
and New York City.
His early paintings have been described as "rough and painterly", an amalgam of symbolism and geometry.
Bultman was exhibiting with other abstract expressionists by the late 1940s, and in 1950 was aligned with the group of New York School artists, nicknamed the " Irascibles" in an article in Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
magazine,[Provincetown Banner](_blank)
/ref> who signed a letter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
protesting the institution's conservative policies. With the assistance of a grant from Italy he studied bronze casting
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) ...
in Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
in 1951; subsequently he was the sole abstract expressionist to fully integrate sculpture into his oeuvre.
Affected by anxiety and depression, Bultman worked little between 1952 and 1956, and resumed painting and sculpting after undergoing Freudian
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
analysis. At a time when African Americans were prohibited from visiting white museums in the south, in 1963 Bultman and his wife led a group of prominent New York artists and writers in the creation of a collection of modern art for Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was originally established in 1869 by New Yor ...
, a black institution in Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...
. Bultman was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1964-5 to work in Paris. In the 1960s Bultman began to make large collages, using pre-painted paper cut or torn and assembled into shapes reminiscent of his figurative drawings and more abstract sexual symbolism. In 1976 he started making stained glass windows with the aid of his wife. Bultman died of cancer in 1985.
Assessment
To Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of the New York School, which also inc ...
, Bultman was "one of the most splendid, radiant and inspired painters of my generation.", and David Houston, curator of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is located in the Warehouse Arts District of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana.
Established in 1999, and in Stephen Goldring Hall at 925 Camp Street since 2003.
The building
The Ogden consists of two main buildin ...
in New Orleans called him "an important artist from the South who was part of that great moment that changed the American cultural landscape."
It has been suggested that Bultman's career and subsequent reputation suffered from the vagaries of chance: he was not available for inclusion in the now iconic photo shoot for Life magazine that helped establish the reputations of the New York School painters; another possibility, according to Motherwell, was Bultman's lack of interest in "art world politics".Naves, Mario
/ref>
Notes
References
''About My Drawings'' by Fritz Bultman
Cousineau, Diane; Salvesen, Magda. Artist's Estates: Reputations in Trust. Rutgers University Press, 2005.
Naves, Mario. ''Rambunctious Bultman, He Missed the Photo Op'', The New York Observer
Jeanne Bultman obituary, Provincetown Banner
External links
* ttp://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A28578&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1 Museum of Modern Art
Smithsonian American Art Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bultman, Fritz
1919 births
1985 deaths
Abstract expressionist artists
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Artists from New Orleans
Painters from New York City
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American male artists
American male sculptors
Sculptors from New York (state)