It was an ordinary day. Opened my Sunday News to the "Entertainment" section and noticed "an explosion of color." It was a story about a fellow named Bill Hutson who died this past September after a yearslong battle with cancer which made him declared legally blind. How sad for a professional artist to lose his livelihood due to loss of his vision. In the 10 years leading up to his death, Mr. Bill Hutson was diagnosed with severe advanced glaucoma. His field of vision was reduced to the size of a pinprick and his perception of color was almost totally lost to the disease. With a diagnoses such as that, how could anyone, be they an artist or not, continue to paint?
Bill Hutson with some of his artistic work But, Mr. Hutson continued painting and completed his last series of abstract artwork two years before his death. Mr. Hutson died on September 21, 2022 after battling his cancer for years. Before his death he served as the distinguished artist-in-resident and associate professor emeritus in the Department of Art, Art History and Film at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. One of Mr. Hutson's good friends at F&M was Padmini Mongia who said that Hutson's final paintings, that were made with failing eyesight, were among his most luminous. Those paintings featured dense masses of bright pure light and as the color moved away from the center, it would gradually fade. Mr. Hutson's relatives and best friends are making sure that his artwork and legacy will not fade, since they have created a celebration of his life and a career-spanning exhibit at F&M's Phillip's Museum of Art which runs until April 27 and again in the fall from September 5 to December 8. In 2010 Mr. Hutson donated thousands of pieces of artwork to the college's art gallery and archives. Mr. Hutson was born in 1936 and raised in the Dunbar neighborhood of San Marcos, Texas. In early 2022 he gave one of his last interviews via email to the Online art magazine "Hyperallergic." He recently told the Lancaster Newspaper that "Art just sort of found me. I'm not one of those people who say I want to be an artist when I grow up." He served in the Air Force and after his discharge studied at the University of New Mexico for a semester followed by a quick stop in California. He finally decided that art school wasn't for him and quit. He rented a room in North Beach and began to paint. Luckily, he lived a block away from the "City Lights Bookstore" where everyone was so kind to him. He made visits to the San Francisco Institute of Art and sat in on some sessions there where he met quite a few well known artists. Then the civil rights movement began and he left for Europe. He spent the next 20 years living abroad. He lived and worked throughout Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. During his lifetime he had 20 solo exhibits as well as more than 50 group exhibits around the world. Hutson's work can be found at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, and the George Visit Collection in Paris. In 2020 he displayed his artwork at the Pennsylvania Governor's Residence. The Governor's wife, Frances Wolf was a former student of Mr. Hutson when he taught at F&M from 1989-99. Mr. Hutson displayed his work at Franklin & Marshall and said, "I'm 83 years old and I've had exhibitions here in the states and all over the world and this is one of the most inspiring." Mr Hutson came to Lancaster in 1989 to teach at F&M and remained here the rest of his life. He worked at his studio on Church Street, even as he was losing his sight and had to feel his way around the rooms.  |
| One of my favorite pieces of his work |
Mr. Hutson donated at least 15 boxes of his sketches, photographs, slides, and exhibition books and monographs. Padmini Mongia said that, "Hutson encouraged me to pause while painting, not to rush......and to do less. He'd talk about paintings breathing. He felt that people should not just be passive consumers and viewers of art. They should be able to manipulate the art to suit their mood." Mr. Bill Hutson was a "one of kind artist." So sad to hear of his passing. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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