The work of Gene Hutner typifies post-WW II American optimism and exuberance, particularly among Abstract Expressionists. After
taking his BA at The City College of New York, he earned his MFA at Columbia University. Hutner also studied extensively with Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s, both in New York and Provincetown, along with Red Grooms, Robert De Niro Sr., and Frank Stella.
In addition to his studio practice, Hutner, like many of his contemporaries, pursued a career as an art instructor in the New York Public schools, and was also acting Chairman of the art programs at Bryant High School. After his retirement from the New York school system, Hutner was an Artist-in-Residence at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, as well as Artist-in-Residence at the Montalvo Center for the Arts at Saratoga, California. He received a grant at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts at Sweet Briar, Virginia.
Hutner was excited by the ever-changing artistic surroundings and milieus in New York. After his early forays into realistic painting, he became intimately involved in the post-war American Abstract Expressionist movement. He often spoke of his interest to “paint the spaces between forms”, “the difference a millimeter makes”, to use white as a color, and to make use of the “push-pull” of relationships on the canvas.
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