The Artist and His Legacy
Hulings' work defines a modernist sensibility without departing from the real—without removing all that is recognizable or deluding the audience by escaping into the wholly abstract.
The Modern Realist
Hulings undermined the distraction of class, reminding us that most people don’t move between glamorous towers or drag their knuckles. He showcased the dignity, nobility, and beauty of common people and ordinary things.
One of the Great Discoverers
Hulings insisted the contemporary world could only be fully understood by specific, personal awareness of its inhabitants. Therefore, he was relentlessly devoted to the figure and figurative work. He pursued stunning multinational backdrops replete with the day-to-day realities only visible through the lens of an international nomad.
Challenging an Audience & Status Quo
A relentless experimenter, Hulings exploited modern techniques from the conventions of impressionism and abstract art, bending them with equal ease into the service of an open-ended art of the figure that wouldn’t limit itself to conventional realist boundaries. His compositional "recipes" enabled him to play the sly subversive, literally slipping things under our noses that we might otherwise be too closed to notice.
Advancing the Craft and its Meaning
Clark Hulings assailed our bias toward the “other” by engaging culture through visceral daily reality. An enemy of distraction, he reprimanded modernism’s flight from that challenge and into the purely abstract. He instead produced a continuous documentary of a changing world at the pace of its most common inhabitants.
The Clark Hulings Estate
Is the single best resource for provenance and authentication, signed and limited edition archival prints, sales support and consignment for the work of Clark Hulings, American Master Painter.
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Freshly Revealed
New Hulings discoveries every week!
Mildred Pierce
It really is incredible how many iconic stories Clark Hulings touched as a professional illustrator. James Cain’s Mildred Pierce was made into a now-classic film by Warner Brothers starring Joan Crawford.
A Walk with Grand-Père
This lovely drawing was part of Hulings’ 1999 Catalogue; it was one of several French works in this one-man show. As France is still fresh from their world cup victory this summer, we thought you might enjoy a quiet European moment with these two.
Auction Alert: Go With The Flow
“Altermann Auctions really timed this auction well, at least from our perspective. The height of summer is a perfect moment to imagine sinking into a freezing cold river. In this 1970 painting, Hulings has his cake and eats it too: the shadow in the foreground shows off the cold water and snow in icey grays, while the clear evening sunlight in the background warms up a palette of glowing amber trees.”
Auction Alert: Donkeys Nuzzling
We’re very happy to see “Donkeys Nuzzling” featured at auction with Bonhams San Francisco on August 7th, so these donkeys could be yours.
Auction Alert: Santa Fe Kitchen Corner
Last week we focused on a major work coming up at auction which includes some still life within it. Santa Fe Kitchen Corner is all still life, and it’s also on the summer auction schedule, this time in San Francisco.
Auction Alert: Major Hulings European Market Scene
“The most interesting time of day for this pedestrian mall is early morning. The mist has not yet burned off. Flower merchants are setting up their stalls, Barcelonans are walking to work and tourists are still in bed.” —Clark Hulings, Timeless Beauty: Pursuing Life’s Textures
Auction Alert: Major Hulings Grand Canyon Painting
“This is the Southern Kaibab Trail. There is a Northern one as well. They connect, and it is possible to hike the canyon from rim to rim without veering from Kaibab.”
Portrait in Vermilion
“I do not know this man’s name, but I do know that he founded the Abbeville Building and Loan in 1890, and that my father painted his portrait sometime between 1947 and 1954. Clearly he was quite young when he founded the savings bank in Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana.”
Nurse Kathy
“The story of her patient’s amnesia is told by the shadow on his face, and no matter how long she’s been on her feet this shift, she is rosy-cheeked, and her lipstick is on-trend.” As I am away this week, our Account Manager Penelope has written this week’s post: hope you enjoy it! — Elizabeth.
Blue Shoes, White Donkey
This little gem was included in my father’s 1964 solo watercolor show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from which it vanished into a private home.
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