William Clutz

Danaher (1908–1975) and his wife, Ellen, had moved to Mercersburg in 1944, soon after Thomas had finished his tour of duty in the Navy.

He was a New York City native, and had studied art at the Cooper Union and at the Art Students League.

He had studied under Hans Hoffman and Rockwell Kent.

Clutz continued to study with Danaher when the latter began teaching at the nearby Washington County Museum of Fine Arts.

William Clutz (March 19, 1933 – July 26, 2021) was an American artist known for urban paintings, pastels, and charcoal drawings of pedestrian scenes transformed by light.

In 1933, Dr. and Mrs. Paul A. Clutz, moved from their parents' homes in Gettysburg, PA to Mercersburg, PA, only a few months after the birth of their second son, William.

Dr. Clutz was a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.

He enlisted in the navy in 1941, returning from the Pacific Theater in 1946.

Mrs. Clutz received a B.A. in Art History from Barnard College, and was aware of the contemporary art world of the time.

William Clutz indicated an early interest in the arts as a child.

At age 11, it was suggested that he study art with a recent Mercersburg resident, Thomas Danaher.

Clutz attended Mercersburg Academy from 1947 to 1951 and continued his studies with Danaher, as the academy offered no art courses at that time.

He was associated with a revival in figurative representation in American art during the 1950s and 1960s.

Clutz was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and he grew up in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

He attended Mercersburg Academy and University of Iowa.

Clutz attended the University of Iowa from 1951 to 1955.

During this time, he began exhibiting his own paintings in local shows, winning 1st prize at the annual Washington County Museum Regional Cumberland Valley Artists Exhibition in 1952, 1953, 1957 and an honorable mention at the 1954 Iowa Annual in Des Moines, Iowa.

He moved to New York City in 1955 to begin his career as a professional artist, and lived there until 1996 when he moved to Rhinebeck, New York.

In 1955, Clutz moved to New York City, and began his career as a professional artist.

Situated in an area of other struggling artists, he lived on East 9th St. between Avenues B and C near Tompkins Square Park, the subject of several of his early works.

He supported his painting career by working a number of part-time jobs.

In 1957, he briefly took classes at the Art Students League in Manhattan.

In New York, abstract expressionism was the orthodox approach to art at the time.

However, Clutz was committed to his personal style that focused on abstracted human figures within urban tableaux.

Working in a context of artists who challenged abstract expressionism's popularity in New York, Clutz established himself as a significant proponent of abstract figuration.

His paintings focus on human figures within the urban environment, often exposing the transfiguration of his subjects as they travel through the complex light of city streets or summer parks, as shown in two of his early works, "Figures, 1960" and "Summer Park, 1960".

Clutz's interest in working from direct observation of urban life was influenced by a long-standing interest in German Expressionism, as well as artists like Henri Matisse, Arshile Gorky, and Nicholas De Stael, and also Albert Ryder's series of reductive seascapes.

"If there ever was an Impressionist of the contemporary metropolis, it is surely Clutz, an artist who has rejected the niceties of representation in favor of the quintessences."

At points in his career, interest in Clutz's charcoal drawings or his pastels competed with interest in his paintings.

In 1961, he began producing a series of large charcoal drawings at the request of his dealer, David Herbert.

In 1962, Clutz joined the Bertha Schaefer Gallery on 57th Street, where his drawings continued to be in demand throughout the 1960s.

. He continued to sell Clutz's pastels throughout the 1970s.

In the 1970s, Clutz continued to sell many pastels and paintings through the Alonzo Gallery on 57th Street.

In 1971, Brooke Alexander, a young contemporary print publisher and dealer, asked Clutz to create a colored print.

After Clutz produced a series of large pastels, Alexander agreed to show them in his gallery.

Clutz produced some hand colored prints for Brooke Alexander during this period; some of these were exhibited by Alexander in "Hand-colored Prints", 1973.

Many of these pastels were shown in his exhibition in the Walther-Rathenau-Saal, Berlin 1978.

The Alonzo Gallery closed in 1980, and in 1981 Clutz became represented by the nearby 57th St. Tatistcheff Gallery.

He exhibited pastels often there in group and solo shows.

Clutz left the gallery because he was more interested in showing paintings rather than pastels.