William Clutz

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

After leaving Tatistcheff, Clutz continued to show pastels in Los Angeles at Terrence Rogers Fine Art.

In 1997 Clutz exhibited paintings at the Nicholas Davies Gallery in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, NY.

The canvasses in this five-decade survey call to mind Edward Hopper's romantic nostalgia and Alex Katz's suave modernity.Clutz taught painting and drawing at Parsons The New School for Design from 1970 to 1994.

[12] John F. Sheehy, Clutz's partner for 30 years, an antiques dealer and Ireland native, died in 2007.

Fifteen of his major works and associated documentation comprise his legacy collection at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts.