AFA Autumn 2019

Autumn 96 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Although the world faced by contemporary painters may be infinitely different from the one inhabited by artists of the past, much of the academic training surrounding the human figure has endured. For over half a century, William Clutz has painted figures. Seen in doorways, windows, or street crossings, often faceless, they appear to glimmer and glint as if caught in a quick glance. “When I moved to NYC, it was the people in the street, a stage set with people moving back and forth. I rode my bicycle around so I could catch lighting effects and return the next day, same time, to continue collecting facts and then develop them at home…. People always want to read a face, but, in the street, personalities shine through posture, clothes, hands, a tilt of the head…. You think, ‘I know someone like that.’”  3 For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design, organized by the American Federation of Arts and the National Academy of Design, is on view at the New Britain Museum of American Art, Conn., October 16, 2019 to January 26, 2020. The exhibition continues through September 2021 at the Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Fla.; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tenn.; New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe; Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa; and Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, Calif.; visit www.amfedarts.org/national-academy fo r dates. The exhibition is curated by Jeremiah William McCarthy, Associate Curator, AFA, and Diana Thompson, Director of Collections and Curatorial Affairs, NAD. It is accompanied by a 304-page catalogue, published by the American Federation of Arts and distributed by Yale University Press., which includes essays by Susan Rather, Elizabeth A. Spear, Kenneth Haltman, Akela Reason, Jennifer A. Greenhill, Kimia Shahi, Jonathan Frederick Walz, left: William Clutz (b. 1933), Self-Portrait (Walking), 1980. Oil on canvas, 35⅛ x 30¼ inches. National Academy of Design, New York; Gift of the artist, September 23, 2009 (2009.4). Photo Credit : Image by Google © William Clutz. Courtesy American Federation of Arts. right: William Clutz (b. 1933), Autumn Street, 1999. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 inches. National Academy of Design, New York; NA diploma presentation, May 17, 2006 (2006.11). © William Clutz. Courtesy American Federation of Arts.