Moss Galleries Revives the Visionary Art of John Hultberg
Title: Rediscovering John Hultberg: Moss Galleries Celebrates a Forgotten Visionary of American Art
Moss Galleries in Falmouth, Maine, is proud to announce its representation of the late American painter John Hultberg (1922–2005) with the landmark exhibition John Hultberg: Angels Above Fear, running through May 31. A once-celebrated name in postwar art, Hultberg’s evocative canvases—imbued with surreal landscapes, psychological tension, and a haunting prophetic edge—are reintroduced to a new generation through this exhibition. The show marks a significant moment in both the reconsideration of Hultberg’s artistic legacy and the broader conversation about how art history remembers its players.
Hultberg, whose expressive and moody paintings earned him widespread recognition in the 1950s and early 1960s, was famously characterized by TIME magazine as a “darling of American art.” His complex oeuvre—what he called “abstracted realism”—melded the symbolic, the surreal, and the emotional, defying easy classification within the traditional movements of Abstract Expressionism or Surrealism. His visual lexicon, forged in part under the mentorship of Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko at the Art Students League following World War II, shifted organically between abstraction and figuration, a bold departure during a time of rigid genre boundaries.
Moss Galleries founder and director Elizabeth Moss explains the gallery’s commitment to reintroducing Hultberg’s work to contemporary audiences: “John Hultberg’s work resonates with a kind of urgent mystery—haunting, prophetic, and deeply human. We are honored to champion his legacy and bring his work to a new generation of collectors and curators. Hultberg painted from a place of uncompromising vision, and that authenticity is more vital now than ever.”
Hultberg’s early achievements were substantial. His First Prize win at the 1954 Corcoran Biennial launched him to prominence, and he held solo exhibitions at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York—then a hub of vanguard American art—and exhibited throughout Europe. At a time when American painting was defining itself on the international stage, Hultberg was a significant contributor to its conversation.
Yet, like many artists whose star once burned brightly, Hultberg gradually receded from the critical spotlight. In recent years, the art world’s attention has shifted to his wife, Lynne Drexler (1928–1999), a painter who, though underrecognized during her lifetime, is now experiencing a wave of auction success, institutional interest, and critical reappraisal. Drexler’s vibrant and rhythmic abstractions have captured the contemporary imagination, bringing her work to major museums and international collectors alike.
This reversal in visibility—between the once-celebrated husband and the once-overlooked wife—raises larger questions about how the art world constructs and reconstructs artistic legacies. How are narratives of genius and innovation preserved or ignored? What role do gender, market force, and cultural fashion play in who is remembered and who is forgotten?
As conversations around equity in art history broaden, Hultberg’s work provides fertile ground for exploration. His paintings, suffused with existential solitude, crumbling architecture, and dreamlike environments, feel curiously of-the-moment. In an uncertain global landscape, the emotive energy and symbolic ambiguity of Hultberg’s work echo the cultural anxiety and philosophical searching of our times.
John Hultberg: Angels Above Fear is more than a retrospective—it is a reclamation. Moss Galleries invites viewers not just to engage with Hultberg’s evocative universe but also to consider how artistic legacies are shaped and reshaped over time. In doing so, the gallery plays a pivotal role in widening the lens through which we view postwar American art.
The exhibition is on view at Moss Galleries in Falmouth, Maine, through May 31, providing a unique opportunity for the public to reconnect with a compelling yet underappreciated figure in American modernism.
To learn more, visit elizabethmossgalleries.com.