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Budd Hopkins

American, 1931-2011
Budd Hopkins' paintings in the 1960s combined the precise, hard-edge geometric shapes he was enthralled with and drawn to as a child with gestural, atmospheric painting characteristic of second- and later-generation Abstract Expressionists. "I had come to understand that an abstract painting at its most powerful was a kind of aesthetic scrim behind which lurks a concealed, obsessive 'thing' or image of some kind, transformed, made palatable by the artist's mediating skills." Hopkins viewed collage as an artistic technique and a philosophical, aesthetic means of unifying a disjointed and fragmented world. He saw collage, the assemblage of fragments and varying points of view, in the poetry, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, and, especially, motion pictures of his day: "Consciously or unconsciously, contemporary artists work to create harmony from distinctly jarring material, forcing warring ideas, materials and spatial systems into a tense and perhaps arbitrary detente. Seen most broadly, the presence of the collage aesthetic is the sole defining quality of modernism in all the arts." Hopkins worked to achieve harmony, clarity and precision while maintaining a sense of mystery: "I like neither extreme in art wholeheartedly, neither the purified world of geometrical art nor the free, indulgent world of Expressionism." In 1963, Hopkins' work was included in American Painters, a film documentary of American artists and styles with commentary from Alfred Barr of the Museum of Modern Art, Thomas Hess of Art News Magazine, Sidney Janis, gallery director, and Harold Rosenberg, art critic. Later, Hopkins included abstracted figures in his sculptural pieces. While moving away from Abstract Expressionism, Hopkins retained in his work the use of intense colors and hard-edged forms. His works of the 1980s, including Temples and Guardians, featured these "sentinals" who were, according to Hopkins, "participating in a frozen ritual, fixed – absolutely – within a privileged space…" Though Hopkins denied any connection, some critics viewed these ritualistic pieces as an extension of Hopkins' fascination with alien beings. Hopkins viewed his sculpted guardians not as human per se, but as magical, fierce, noble robots of the unconscious. Hopkins exhibited his paintings and sculptures in museums, galleries such as Andre Zarre, Levis Fine Art and Poindexter (New York) and Jan Cicero (Chicago), and universities throughout the United States. Hopkins had a major retrospective exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in the summer of 2017. The Whitney Museum, Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the British Museum, include Hopkins' work in their permanent collections.
(Biography provided by Berta Walker Gallery)
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Mahler's Castle II by Budd Hopkins
Located in Hudson, NY
Budd Hopkin's Mahler's Castle paintings exemplified a shift away from his holistic single image paintings of 1971 and 1972 to a new hieraticism. Both Mon­drian and Newman, for instan...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Budd Hopkins

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Dancing Guardian
Located in Provincetown, MA
Budd Hopkins was part of New York’s initial wave of abstract expressionists which included Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Jackson Pollock, among others. Hopkins’ hard-edged pain...
Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Budd Hopkins

Materials

Acrylic

Large Budd Hopkins Modernist Hard Edged Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting 1965
Located in Surfside, FL
Budd Hopkins, American (1931-2011) Strike Red Oil on canvas, 1965, signed 'Hopkins' and dated lower right. Dimensions: 85 x81 in., 86 x 52 in. with frame. Provenance: bears partial label remnant verso from Poindexter Gallery. (a major gallery founded in 1955 in New York City by Elinor Poindexter. The gallery specialized in sculpture, abstract, and figurative art and featured the works of such artists as Richard Diebenkorn, Jules Olitski, Nell Blaine, Al Held, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Earl Kerkam, Milton Resnick and Robert De Niro, among others. Budd Hopkins was one of the leading proponents of the "hard-edge" abstract minimalist school of painting in the 1950s and 1960s, Budd Hopkins (born 1931) created works that show the strong influence of Jackson Pollock and other leading painters of the Abstract Expressionism movement. Hopkins' paintings are now in numerous major collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Hirshhorn Collection in Washington, DC. Recently, he has also been recognized for his research into the matter of UFOs and one of his books, "The Intruders", printed by Random House, was on the New York Times best-seller list and was the basis for a television show on CBS. Born in 1931, he is a graduate of Linsly Military Institute (now Linsly School) in 1949 and Oberlin College in 1953. He first displayed artistic abilities when, as a child recovering from a long-term illness, he began to create sculptures of ships made out of modeling clay. But it wasn't until he arrive at Oberlin that he made a serious study of art. Later, Hopkins included abstracted figures in his sculptural pieces. While moving away from Abstract Expressionism, Hopkins retained in his work the use of intense colors and hard-edged forms. His works of the 1980s, including Temples and Guardians, featured these "sentinels" who were, according to Hopkins, "participating in a frozen ritual, fixed – absolutely – within a privileged space..." Though Hopkins denied any connection, some critics viewed these ritualistic pieces as an extension of Hopkins' fascination with alien beings. Hopkins viewed his sculpted guardians not as human per se, but as magical, fierce, noble robots of the unconscious. He settled in New York after obtaining his degree and has had a residence there ever since. He and his wife, April Kingsley, and their daughter, Grace, divide their time between their home at Cape Cod, Mass., and that in New York City. In his work, he travels widely. He has exhibited in England, Finland, Italy and Switzerland. In 1963, Hopkins was selected by the Columbia Broadcasting System as one of the 15 painters featured in the network's first television special on American art. In 1958, Art News picked him as one of 12 Americans for exhibition in Spoleto, Italy, in the "Festival of Two Worlds." His brilliance has won him a number of fellowships and awards. In 1972, the West Virginia Arts and Humanities Council awarded him its Commission Prize. In 1976, he received the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Painting and in '79 he received a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. He also won a special project grant from the New York State Council on the Arts in 1982. He was friends with Robert Ryman and many of the other 10th street avant garde artists. He was an original member of March Gallery which showed Alice Baber, Elaine de Kooning, Mark di Suvero, Lester Johnson, Matsumi Kanemitsu. His art has been featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum, Corcoran Gallery, Guggenheim Museum, Queens Museum in New York, and the Public Library of New York. He was included in Young America 1960: Thirty American Painters Under Thirty-Six buy Lloyd Goodrich at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC. Artists included: Sonia Gechtoff, Edward Giobbi, Ron Gorchov, James Harvey, Budd Hopkins, Wolf Kahn, Alex Katz, Robert Natkin, Rudy Pozzatti, Dean Richardson...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Budd Hopkins

Materials

Paint

Saratoga
Located in Provincetown, MA
Budd Hopkins was part of New York’s initial wave of abstract expressionists which included Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Jackson Pollock, among others. Hopkins’ hard-edged pain...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Budd Hopkins

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Jutland III, Abstract Geometric Screenprint by Budd Hopkins
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Budd Hopkins, American (1931 - ) Title: Jutland III Year: 1979 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: AP 45 Image Size: 21.5 x ...
Category

1970s Abstract Budd Hopkins

Materials

Screen

Guardian X, Geometric Abstract Silkscreen by Budd Hopkins
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Budd Hopkins Title: Guardian X Year: 1979 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: AP 45 Paper Size: 40 x 26 inches (101.6 x 66...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Budd Hopkins

Materials

Screen

Untitled Abstract
Located in Concord, MA
BUDD HOPKINS (1931-2011) Untitled Abstract, 1964 Oil on paper on canvas 14 x 11 inches Signed and dated at lower right: Hopkins ‘64 Budd Hopkins was born in Wheeling, West Vi...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Budd Hopkins

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Paper

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Artist: Budd Hopkins, American (1931 - ) Title: Diamond Year: 1964-1966 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dated Size: 25 x 25 in. (63.5 x 63.5 cm) Fr...
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Diamond
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Budd Hopkins art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Budd Hopkins art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Budd Hopkins in paint, oil paint, screen print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Budd Hopkins art, so small editions measuring 9 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Todd Boppel, Heather Farrell, and Sylvia Rutkoff. Budd Hopkins art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $760 and tops out at $30,000, while the average work can sell for $3,800.

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