Peter Hutchinson

PETER HUTCHINSON

Peter HUTCHINSON is an artist and photographer born in 1930. He went to USA and studied Arts in Illinois University between 1953 and 1960. Peter HUTCHINSON started his artistic career during the sixties as a minimalist painter.

Afterwards, he took some distances with minimalism and he is, at this moment, perceived as a conceptual artist, like his participation to exhibition: Information (1970), organized at the MoMA of New York, underlines it. Peter HUTCHINSON was presented with about 100 other artists, including Vito ACCONCI, Daniel BUREN, Sol LeWITT, Robert MORRIS, Andy WARHOL, Robert RAUSCHENBERG, Jan DIBBETS, Hans HAACKE, Dennis OPPENHEIM, Edward RUSCHA, Robert SMITHSON, and Jeff WALL. It is with the conceptual art approach that Peter HUTCHINSON began to merge text and photo-collages.

From Minimalism to Narrative Art

Then, Peter HUTCHINSON’s work took a new direction, more linked to Land Art and Narrative Art, movements within which he was pioneer. Jack-of-all-trades, he has kept on experimenting various mediums.

Narrative Art, also called Story Art, started through text and pictures associations. It differs from Conceptual Art by the preeminence of the narrative sequences. Peter HUTCHINSON’s artworks have a deeper temporality. They take place in a continuum which disagree with the photographic idea of “decisive moment” dear to Henri CARTIER-BRESSON. Using text combined with photos allowed this feat. It was during the 1970s that gallerist John GIBSON, fond of photography and a literature lover, took an interest for textual photography and organized the Story exhibition in 1973. It was the very first exhibition gathering photo-text artists, among which David ASKEVOLD, John BALDESSARI, Bill BECKLEY, Peter HUTCHINSON, Jean Le GAC, David TREMLETT, Ger van ELK, William WEGMAN and Roger WELCH.

Peter HUTCHINSON has focused on subjects about relationships between human and nature. The collages, the use of gouache and woad, the juxtaposition of photos and the notes of the artist has produced unique pieces.

Museums :

  • Arp Museum Rolandseck, Remagen, Netherlands
  • Collection du Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie, France
  • Finch College Museum, New York City, USA
  • F.R.A.C. Limousin, Limoges, France
  • F.R.A.C. Paris, France
  • Gordon Matta-Clark Foundation, Center for Contemporary Art, Antwerpen, Belgium
  • Künstlergärten, Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar, Netherlands
  • Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
  • Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Genève, Switzerland
  • Musée de Beaux-Arts, Toulouse / France
  • Musée de St.-Etienne, St.-Etienne, France
  • Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
  • Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel
  • Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany
  • Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany
  • Museum Ludwig, Wien, Austria
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney / Australia
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / Massachusetts, USA
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York City, USA
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington / DC, USA
  • Rose Museum, Brandeis University, Boston / Massachusetts, USA
  • Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany
  • The New Museum, New York City, USA
  • Wadsworth Atheneum, Collection of Sol Lewitt, Hartford / Connecticut, USA

Fairs and exhibitions :

  • Peter Hutchinson, FRAC Bretagne, Rennes, France, 2015
  • Land Art, Koblenz Museum, Coblence, Germany, 2011
  • Gathering: Art about Architecture, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 2010
  • Retrospective, Arp Gallery, Rolandseck, Remagen, Germany, 2009
  • Paradis rêvé, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Allemagne, 2009
  • Peter Hutchinson, FRAC Limousin, Limoges, France, 2006
  • La Photographie écrite. 1950-2005, Centre National d’Art et du Paysage – Vassivière et Limousin, Ile de Vassivière, France, 2006
  • Derrière les faits, la Fondation Miró, Barcelone, Espagne, 2004
  • Derrière les faits, Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal, 2004
  • Group Sculpture Exhibition, Arp Museum Rolandseck, Remagen, Germany, 2001
  • Land Art, Narrative Art, Galerie Lucien Durand Le Gaillard, Paris, 1999
  • Artists Who Work With Living Plants, Heidelberg, Allemagne, 1997
  • The Narrative Art of Peter Hutchinson: A Retrospective, Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1994
  • Contre la Nature, Centre National d’Art et du Paysage – Vassivière et Limousin, Ile de Vassivière, France, 1991
  • Photographs & Collages, Galerie Hadrien-Thomas, Paris, 1990
  • Large Land Art Photos, Galerie Christine et Isy Brachot, Bruxelles, Belgium, 1989
  • Ruined Rope Throw, Ruined Gallery, Berlin, 1988
  • Earth Art, John Gibson Gallery, New York, 1987
  • Photography: New Directions, Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1984
  • Rétrospective, Galerie Denise René-Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf, Germany, 1978
  • Photography for Collectors, MoMA, New York City, New York, 1976
  • The Anarchist’s Story, John Gibson Gallery, New York City, New York, 1975
  • Narrative Art, Galerie 20, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas, 1973
  • Story, John Gibson Gallery, New York City, New York, 1973
  • Earth, Air, Fire and Water: Elements of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1971
  • Peter Hutchinson, Harcus-Krakow Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1971
  • Information, MoMA, New York City, New York, 1970
  • Landscapes, John Gibson Gallery, New York City, New York, 1969
  • Ocean Projects: Hutchinson and Oppenheim, New York City, New York, 1969
  • Sculpture, Great Southwestern Corporation Park, Atlanta, Georgia, 1968
  • Collages, Dorothy Iannone Gallery, New York City, New York, 1964

Bibliographie – sélection d’ouvrages : 

  • Hutchinson, Peter, Dissoudre les nuages, les presses du réel, 2014
  • Hutchinson, Peter, O’Doherty, Brian & Lloyd, Ann Wilson, The Narrative Art of Peter Hutchinson: A Retrospective, Provincetown Arts Press, 1994
  • Hutchinson, Peter, Thrown Rope, Princeton Architectural Press, 2005

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