Walter Kuhlman (1918–2009) was a 20th-century American painter and printmaker. In the late 1940s and 1950s, he was a core member of the San Francisco School of
Abstract Expressionism. He later worked in a representational style related to
American Figurative Expressionism.
Biography
Walter Kuhlman was born in 1918 in St Paul, Minnesota to Peter and Marie Kuhlman, Danish immigrants. Part of his childhood was spent living with an aunt in
Saeby, a coastal town in northern Denmark.
[Birth certificate and Kuhlman family records.]
In 1936, Kuhlman enrolled at the St. Paul School of Art, where he studied with Cameron Booth (1892–1980), a modernist who had trained in Europe with André Lhote and Hans Hofmann. Kuhlman completed his studies at the St. Paul School in 1939, and then taught there. He was also enrolled at the University of Minnesota, from which he earned a bachelor's degree in 1941.
During World War II, Kuhlman was drafted into the U.S. Navy and assigned a position as a medical illustrator. He married his first wife, Nora, who was also in military service. After both were discharged in 1945, the couple lived briefly in New Orleans and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Kuhlman enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) in 1947. (This is now the
San Francisco Art Institute.) The CSFA faculty, notably
Clyfford Still
Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediately follow ...
, encouraged an exploration of
Abstract Expressionism and thus established San Francisco as a recognized center distinct from the
New York School. Kuhlman was among the core group of San Francisco Abstract Expressionists.
[Landauer, Susan. ''The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Pages 13-16.]
At this time, Kuhlman became interested in printmaking. He joined five other artists associated with CSFA –
Richard Diebenkorn
Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...
,
James Budd Dixon,
John Hultberg
John Hultberg (February 8, 1922 – April 15, 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist and Abstract realist painter. Early in his career he was related to the Bay Area Figurative Movement; he was also a lecturer and playwright.
Early life a ...
,
Frank Lobdell
Frank Lobdell (1921 - 2013) was an American painter, often associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement and Bay Area Abstract Expressionism.
Life and career
Frank Lobdell was born on August 23, 1921 in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Miss ...
, and George Stillman – to create 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," because most, including Kuhlman, lived in
Sausalito
Sausalito (Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sausalito's ...
, north of San Francisco. Kuhlman also produced important intaglio prints at CFSA.
[Acton, David. ''The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints.'' New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2001. Pages 66, 70, 72, 82, 84, 86, 120.]
The artist went to Paris in 1950, and he was among a group of Americans who exhibited in the 1951 Salon des réalités nouvelles (or "new realities"). It was among the first exhibitions in Europe to feature American Abstract Expressionism. Kuhlman was also included in a second Paris exhibition, Un art autre ("art of another kind"), curated by
Michel Tapié
Michel Tapié (full name: Michel Tapié de Céleyran; 26 February 1909 – 30 July 1987) was a French art critic, curator, and collector. He was an early and influential theorist and practitioner of "tachisme", a French style of abstract painti ...
.
Kuhlman returned to his home in Sausalito, and he continued his focus on Abstract Expressionist painting through the decade of the 1950s. While some early abstracts reveal experimentation with gestural abstraction, Kuhlman's later abstracts show an affinity for
Color Field painting. His work was included in the United States exhibition at the 1955 International Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil. Kuhlman received a fellowship in 1957 from the Chicago-based Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
In 1960, Kuhlman became a member of the faculty of the University of New Mexico. At the same time, the artist became increasingly drawn away from Abstract Expressionism and toward figurative imagery. This figurative work can be enigmatic, often seeking to express subjective emotional and archetypal themes.
[Landauer. Op. Cit. Page 110.] Although this work is highly personal, it can be placed within the broad movement of
American Figurative Expressionism.
Kuhlman left the
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
in 1965. After teaching stints at
Stanford University and
Santa Clara University, Kuhlman joined the faculty at
Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University (SSU, Sonoma State, or Sonoma) is a public university in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County, California, US. It is one of the smallest members of the California State University (CSU) system. Sonoma State offers 92 Bachelor's ...
. The California Arts Council awarded him a Maestro Grant as an "Outstanding Artist and Teacher" in 1982. Kuhlman retired from teaching in 1988.
While teaching, and after his retirement, Kuhlman continued to paint and exhibit. He also became committed to monotype printmaking. Kuhlman continued to live in Sausalito, with his second wife, Tulip. He was elected to the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...
in 1995. His papers were accepted into the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art.
The artist died in 2009.
Public collections
The artist's paintings and prints are held by a number of public collections, including:
* British Museum
* Cleveland Museum of Art
* Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
* Menil Collection
* Metropolitan Museum of Art
* Oakland Museum of California
* Phillips Collection
* San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
* Smithsonian Museum of American Art
* Worcester Museum of Art
References
Sources / further reading
* Marika Herskovic
''American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,''(New York School Press, 2003.) . pp. 198–201
* Acton, David. ''The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints.'' New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2001.
* Albright, Thomas. ''
Art in the San Francisco Bay Area: 1945-1980.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
* Landauer, Susan. ''The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
* McChesney, Mary. ''A Period of Exploration: San Francisco, 1945-1950.'' Oakland Museum of California, 1973.
External links
Website maintained by the artist's estate, with many examples of his work.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhlman, Walter
Abstract expressionist artists
20th-century American painters
American male painters
21st-century American painters
21st-century American male artists
Painters from California
University of Minnesota alumni
San Francisco Art Institute alumni
2009 deaths
1918 births
20th-century American printmakers
20th-century American male artists