John Hultberg

John Hultberg was born in Berkeley, California in 1922 and is considered an abstract realist. Hultberg studied at California State College and later at the California School of Fine Arts with Richard Diebenkorn, Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko. Hultberg leverages strong forms and design balanced by a striking use of color. Hultberg began to draw and paint as a young child, experimenting with color. In 1943 Hultberg received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fresno College participating in shows soon after duty with the military, thereafter he attended the Art Students League of New York in 1949. When Hultberg was enrolled in the Art Students League, he became part of the Abstract Expressionist community that included Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and Robert Rauschenberg. Hultberg remained at the league until 1951. Hultberg also participated in many art shows in Paris during the early 1950s. Hultberg received first prize for oils at the Corcoran biennial show in 1955 and honorable mention At the Carnegie International exhibition. In 1955, Hultberg was also declared the “latest darling of Modern Art" in Time Magazine. The most career-shaping event however was when Hultberg met Martha Jackson, the owner of a New York based gallery. Jackson and Hultberg would remain friends and business partners over the course of his career. Hultberg returned to New York in 1956 and he was welcomed and shown by major museums around the nation including, the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum. Hultberg received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1956 and druring the late 1950s, Hultberg exhibited all over much of Europe.
John Hultberg taught on both coasts and in Hawaii, as well as was known for his poems and play writing. Hultberg possessed an extremely unique avant-garde, surreal, abstract style which is now starting to gain acclaimed recognition by serious collectors and critics. Hulberg's works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, MoMA, Corcoran Gallery of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim and the Smithsonian.