William Clutz
William Clutz was born 1933 in Gettysburg PA, and grew up in Mercersburg, PA. He studied at Mercersburg Academy and the University of Iowa where he received his BA in Painting. Clutz was a Manhattan resident from 1955-1996.
Clutz is known for urban paintings, pastels, and charcoal drawings of pedestrians in light. Recognized as a significant proponent of abstract figuration in the renewed interest in figuration of the late 50’s and 60’s in such exhibitions as “Recent Drawings, USA”, 1956 and “Recent Paintings USA, the Figure,” 1962 at MOMA, “The Emerging Figure”, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, 1960 and “The Figure International” at the American Federation of Arts, 1963.
Since his first solo show in 1959 in New York, Clutz has exhibited regularly in New York City and been represented by these well-known New York City Galleries–Katharina Rich Perlow, Tatistcheff, Alonzo, Graham, Brooke Alexander, Bertha Schaefer, and David Herbert. Clutz has also had solo exhibitions at Triangle Gallery San Francisco, Tatischeff/Rogers in Los Angeles, John C. Stoller Minneapolis, and Walther Rathenau Saal in Berlin, Germany.
Clutz taught painting and drawing at Parsons the New School for Design from 1970-1992.
Significant works by Clutz are included in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Washington DC, The Newark Museum NJ, Dayton Art Institute OH, Museum of Modern Art NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art NY, Museum of the City of New York NY, Corcoran Gallery of Art DC, Washington County Museum MD, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum NY, Mercersburg Academy PA, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University MA, and many corporate collections such as Chase Manhattan Bank NY, Bradley Family Foundation WI, McKinsey and Company NY, Mobil Corporation VA, Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance MN and many others. Included in Dictionary of Contemporary American Artists, Paul Cummings, ed. Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon, Munich, Leipzig: K.G. Saur Verlag. William Clutz was elected to National Academy of Art & Design in 2006.