Collage: Fritz Bultman, Red Lap Barrier 1971 [paper & gouache] In the Irascibles photo: Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still, James C. Brooks, Hedda Sterne, Jimmy Ernst, Bradley Walker Tomlin, Richard Pousette-Dart, Barnett Newman, Theodoros Stamos, William Baziotes, Mark Rothko. Irascibles Photo, Nina Leen/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Over the years, my godfather George talked about his friends, Fritz and Jeanne Bultman. Though he had not seen Jeanne for quite some time, he stayed in touch with her until her death in 2008. Her husband, Fritz Bultman who was part of the abstract expressionist group of painters in the 1940s, had died in 1985. My godfather spent summer days with the Bultmans in Provincetown—along with Tennessee Williams, Donald Windham, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and the Hofmanns. Born in 1919 into a prominent New Orleans family, Fritz Bultman studied abroad where he met Maria and Hans Hofmann. In 1937, after a year of study at Chicago's New Bauhaus School [a school he thought was "anti-painting"]—he left and spent four years studying under Hans Hofmann in New York and Provincetown.
Bultman collages: Explorer: Sky and Water, 1968 | Rooting, 1975 | Sky Harp, 1977
In 1950, Bultman started showing at the Samuel Kootz Gallery—prominent dealer of abstract expressionist paintings. On May 22, 1950 the New York Times published a front-page article with the headline "18 Painters Boycott Metropolitan Museum: Charge Hostility to Advanced Art." The article was in response to an open letter to the newspaper protesting the organizations and the juries responsible for selecting the work for the Metropolitan Museum's American Art Exhibition, to be held in December of the same year. The group of artists responsible for the letter, became known as the Irascibles. A photo of the group was published in the January 15, 1951 issue of Life magazine—containing a who's who of the abstract expressionist movement.
The Way Up and the Way Down, 1975 | November Wave, 1978 | Mardi Gras, 1978 [paper and gouache]
Fritz Bultman was not present for the Irascibles photo. He was studying sculpture at the time in Italy and missed the most important photo opportunity of his life. I asked art scholar and curator of Fritz Bultman, Collages [1997 exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia], Evan R. Firestone—if he thought Bultman's absence from the famous Irascibles photo, affected his success as an artist. "I think Fritz would have been somewhat better known in the 50s if he was in the Irascible photo, but he would not have attained the fame of most of the others in the photo. Much of Fritz's painting in the 40s was strong and tough, but not particularly ingratiating. There was a hiatus in his production in the early to mid-50s, and afterwards his work became increasingly Matissean, especially the collages—which I greatly admire—but the art world had moved on [Minimalism, Pop, Post-Minimalism, etc.]."
Other, 1981 | Daphne I, 1984 | Floating II, 1980 [paper and gouache]
Like his good friend, writer Donald Windham, Bultman never quite attained the name-recognition achieved by his contemporaries. In a letter from Butlman to Windham, Fritz writes: "I have long realized that your position, like mine, was untenable in the face of worldly acceptance and that the price of independence was obscurity. You must realize that character-wise you cannot make any other choice. Also there is no redemption thru time like in the 19th cent. It is only thru work that pleasure/reward will come to us, to make work the be all and the end all in itself."
I think the work of Fritz Bultman deserves another close look. And, once again... it's my godfather George who is leading me there.
Reap, 1981 | Interrupted, 1984 [paper and gouache]
Collage images from: Fritz Bultman Collages, 1997 exhibition catalogue, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia
A thank you to scholar: Evan R. Firestone
Update on 4/19/13 - I have just learned that Edelman Arts has recently become the exclusive New York representation for the Bultman estate and is currently presenting a solo exhibition of his work. Visit here to learn more.
