Subscribe
A.J. Meek, Portrait of Bill Hutson Next to a Window, c. 1981, sepia photograph, 11 x 14 inches. Artwork courtesy of the Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College. All rights reserved.
About Bill Hutson
Bill Hutson was born in 1936 in the Dunbar neighborhood in San Marcos. His father, who sadly passed away when Hutson was a young child, was a local musician and his mother was a custodian at Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Texas State University). Hutson's life as an artist started when, as a teenager, he responded to an advertisement in the newspaper that said, "Draw Me." Hutson entered and won a spot in an art correspondence course to learn how to draw cartoons. This experience lead him to submit a cartoon to the San Marcos Daily Paper, which was published, much to Hutson's surprise.
Hutson would later serve in the Air Force before returning to art in 1960. He attended the San Francisco Academy of Art to study commercial art. Hutson was warned that he would struggle to find work in commercial art because of his skin color, so he began creating art as an expression instead of as a means of work.
New York City was his next stop, but he spent a lot of time moving and traveling around the world. Travelling introduced him to other notable artists. It was his time living in Holland where he began to move in a circle of African-American abstract expressionists.
Hutson's artwork has been in many museum and gallery exhibitions both internationally and throughout the United States. A large collection of his art was donated to Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he is currently the Jennie Brown Cook and Betsy Hess Cook Distinguished Artist-in-Residence.
A Conversation with
Bill Hutson
See The Art
The San Marcos art community has come together to pay homage to the incredible San Marcos-born and raised artist, Bill Hutson. The city-wide exhibit has been curated by five San Marcos art venues: the Calaboose African American History Museum, the Price Center, the San Marcos Art League, the Texas State Galleries, and the Walkers' Gallery, with support from the San Marcos Arts Commission, the City of San Marcos, the San Marcos Public Library and Cardinal Frame & Art. The art on view is on temporary loan from the artist's studio and from the Phillips Museum at Franklin & Marshall College.
Calaboose African American History Museum
The Art of Bill Hutson: The Opening
January 15–April 2, 2022
200 W. Martin Luther King Dr., San Marcos, TX
Find location-specific exhibit information HERE.
San Marcos Art Center
The Art of Bill Hutson: Image of Scorpius
January 12–March 20, 2022
117 N. Guadalupe St., San Marcos, TX
Find location-specific exhibit information HERE.
The Price Center
The Art of Bill Hutson: Works in 3D
January 15–February 26, 2022
222 W. San Antonio St., San Marcos, TX
Find location-specific exhibit information HERE.
Texas State Galleries
The Art of Bill Hutson: Homestead
September 15, 2021– May 18, 2022
233 W. Sessom, San Marcos, TX
Find location-specific exhibit information HERE.
Walkers' Gallery @ The San Marcos Public Library
The Art of Bill Hutson: Trees are never finished…
January 15, 2021– April 9, 2022
625 E. Hopkins St., San Marcos, TX
All artwork courtesy of the Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College. All rights reserved. Photographs: Madelynn Mesa.
Funded in part by the San Marcos Arts Commission.
