Meditations in Hue

Lincoln Glenn Gallery is pleased to present Edward Zutrau; Meditations in Hue, an exhibition the artist’s oeuvre, painterly chromatic reflections from his time in Japan (1958-67). Expressing the beauty and calmness of the world around us—moments of serenity that often go unnoticed in our busy lives—Zutrau was a lifelong expressionist and a fixture in the 1970s New York art scene, and brings these qualities to life in his art, creating meditative compositions that invites viewers to pause and reflect. Edward Zutrau is among the American artists who worked within the whirlwind of diverse abstraction that blossomed in the decades immediately following the burgeoning of Abstract Expressionism. An educator at various schools for many years during his career, including stints at the Fashion Institute of Technology and New York University, Zutrau received three one-person shows at the Betty Parsons Gallery. Throughout his life, he produced many written descriptions of his ideas about art, frequently philosophical, including published and unpublished brief essays and diaristic expressions of daily occurrences and thoughts concerning art and life. In a published comment of November 1960 that posits: “To write about painting is exactly that, [the word] ‘About’ meaning around or nearly, never directly hitting the point. Only the act of painting can do this and then convey it to others purely on the terms of painting, not to simply be looked at, or seen intellectually but to be seen and fully comprehended with our whole being.” With his sensitivity to the subtleties of color and shape, it also seems logical that Zutrau might be attracted to the sensitive artistic traditions and introspective philosophy of East Asia. Indeed, he took two extended sojourns to Japan between 1958 and 1967 with his family (his wife was Japanese), and created many works there, including the ones in this exhibition. Edward Zutrau (1922–1993) was an American painter whose career spanned from the 1940s through the early 1990s. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he was introduced to art by his grandfather, a designer, and trained at institutions such as the Art Students League and the Brooklyn Museum. In the 1940s and '50s, Zutrau was part of the downtown New York bohemian art scene. His early work, rooted in dynamic realism, evolved into a more abstract style influenced by the New York School and European artists like Matisse and Gauguin. By the mid-1950s, his paintings began to incorporate simplified forms and gestural marks. In 1958, Zutrau moved to Japan with his family, where he had five solo exhibitions over five years, receiving praise for his bold use of color and space. Critics recognized his work as a unique fusion of Western abstraction and Japanese aesthetics. His time in Japan was pivotal, with shows at prestigious galleries like Chou Koran and Tokyo Gallery, where his work, including *Tokyo Image* (1959), explored strong color contrasts and free-form shapes. After returning to the U.S. in 1967, Zutrau continued painting and teaching, inspiring students at institutions such as the Fashion Institute of Technology and New York University. He became a close friend of art dealer Betty Parsons, who held three solo shows of his work between 1972 and 1980. His later paintings, like those in his 1975 and 1980 shows, explored surface texture and elemental themes, drawing comparisons to artists like Rothko and Newman. Zutrau’s works are held in prominent collections, including the Wadsworth Atheneum, and his art was widely admired for its clarity, originality, and emotional depth. He passed away unexpectedly in 1993 at the age of 71, leaving behind a legacy as both a respected artist and a dedicated teacher.

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