Charles Hinman

Charles Hinman (b. 1932) is an American painter and sculptor who has been a pioneering figure in the development of the shaped canvas, whose distinctive practice combines painting and sculpture in works that project outward from the wall in dynamic geometric configurations. Born in Syracuse, New York, he pursued his artistic training at Syracuse University and continued his studies at the Art Students League in New York City. Before fully committing to a life in art, he briefly played professional baseball, an unusual biographical footnote that has become part of his artistic lore.

Hinman emerged as a significant new voice in the early 1960s with the shaped canvas works that would define his career. Working with stretched canvas over three-dimensional wooden armatures, he produced pieces that behave simultaneously as paintings and as sculptural objects, with their planes twisting, angling, and projecting into real space while remaining defined by the flat painted surface and the crisp geometric form. His work sits at the intersection of Minimalism, Hard-Edge painting, and Op Art, sharing the reductive vocabulary of his generation while opening up unique possibilities for the interaction between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space.

Hinman was included in the important exhibitions that helped define American art in the 1960s, and he was represented by the Richard Feigen Gallery in New York during his early career. He shared a studio with James Rosenquist during the years when both artists were emerging into public visibility, placing him at the heart of the transformative New York art scene of the decade. He has taught at Cooper Union and other institutions, mentoring generations of American artists over his long career. His works are held in the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and other major American collections.