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.
Freshly Revealed
New Hulings discoveries every week!
Hulings’ Legacy, 99 Years Later…
This weekend, we celebrated Clark Hulings’ 99th Birthday. (And stay tuned, because we have big plans for the upcoming 100th!) Hulings’ artistic and entrepreneurial legacies are more relevant than ever. His work invites us into the flow of time. Hardworking human beings from around the world are surrounded by the dynamic and changing contexts of …
Clark Hulings—Working Artist
“Clark Hulings saw himself as a working artist whose subject was work. The work of people whose lives are their work, whose rhythms are the rhythms of the seasons, whose inner lives remain a complex mystery.” James D. Balestrieri, author of the upcoming Clark Hulings book, takes us inside the world of Hulings’ work …
Dean Mitchell—Realism & Beyond
“I love exploring the common man. I like things that have a sense of struggle about them, a sense of survival about them.”—Dean Mitchell With thanks to our co-producer Shirley Holland, we were honored to welcome acclaimed painter and Clark Hulings Fund Advisory Board member Dean Mitchell to a recent Evenings with Hulings Virtual …
Clark Hulings: Quantum Realist
“Even when Hulings’ villages, markets and mission bustle with activity, they depict cultures so old that they blur the edges between culture and nature. His paintings are mosaics—and also stained glass—but imagine mosaics cracked by time, with vines and weeds growing up through them, nature entwining culture, portrait entangled with landscape, held suspended in a …
Trippi & Whipple: Collectors and Collecting
“I think it’s important to connect back to Clark Hulings’ ideas about relationships. It’s about people; not just about art and objects.” We were so fortunate to welcome Fine Art Connoisseur Editor-in-Chief Peter Trippi—with his special guest, collector and visual artist Libby Whipple—to our first Evenings with Hulings Virtual Salon Event! In this video, …
James D. Balestrieri on The Thriving Artist™ Podcast
“Hulings’ life’s work is depicting work. Working people in working situations—whether they’re farmers, laborers, whether it’s an urban setting, a village setting, or a rural setting. That sets him apart from almost any other American realist of his time.”
Collector Profile: Stephen Zimmerman
“In The Pink Serape, there’s busyness and a focal point. There’s a lot going on: the movement, the energy, the colors. I go back to this painting over and over again, and each time the story unfolds, it’s a little different.” Indianapolis’ Stephen Zimmerman is an art collector, a St. Louis Cardinals fan, founding …
SOLD: El Palmar #3
“Judging from the other boats lined up on the shore, this boatman may be the last one in tonight—so hopefully, his friends are waiting for him with a well-earned cerveza.” Today we’re in Southeast Spain in the village of El Palmar, Murica. El Palmar #3 is a 20 x 30″ oil on canvas, and …
SOLD: Stone Bridge
Stone Bridge 8 x 16″ oil on canvas 1987 This wind-swept Hulings gem sold at the Scottsdale Art Auction April 9-10 2021!
SOLD: Blonde Girl-Sicily
“This little blonde girl, having her mini-adventure, could be the great-great-granddaughter of Normans, Vandals, or Vikings.” By the early 1970s, Clark Hulings’ subject matter as an easel painter had firmly landed: intricate compositions with traditional but not nostalgic subjects, strongly based in Europe and Mexico. Stateside, at this point, Clark was coming to the …
SOLD: Old Lady in Black – Valencia
“The old lady in black was still there, and I showed her a reproduction of the painting. Big mistake! We spent the next hour going from stall to stall to exhibit her new-found fame.” It’s been a while since we’ve featured a Hulings market scene, and today, we’re in Valencia, Spain. Many artists explore …
James D. Balestrieri: How Do You Write A Book About An Artist?
“Hulings was a working artist whose subject was work.” In the third part of our Haverford College series, Hulings Estate writer in residence James D. Balestrieri shares his research for the new Clark Hulings book. Jim discusses his thematic approach to Hulings’ life and work, going beyond a traditional biography or monograph, and honoring the …
James D. Balestrieri: How Do You Write A Book About An Artist? Read More »
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