artist
Charles Hinman, a pioneering figure in the development of shaped canvases, emerged in the 1960s as part of a new generation of artists challenging the limitations of traditional pictorial space. Trained as both a painter and a sculptor, Hinman fused these disciplines by constructing canvases with three-dimensional supports that physically project from the wall. These sculptural surfaces interact dynamically with light and shadow, creating an ever-changing visual experience that blurs the boundary between painting and object. His work is often associated with the Hard-Edge and Minimalist movements, yet it resists strict categorization due to its lyrical geometry and subtle play of color and form.
Unlike purely illusionistic painting, Hinman's shaped canvases assert their objecthood; they are not mere windows into another space but entities that occupy real space. By manipulating the structural form of the canvas itself—curving, bending, and folding the support—he creates compositions that are both architectonic and sensuous. Hinman’s innovations contributed to a broader reconsideration of the picture plane during the post-painterly abstraction era, positioning him as a crucial, though sometimes overlooked, voice in the dialogue between painting and sculpture.
Description
Hinman, describing his shaped canvases as “skin over bones.” The Cubes is a three-dimensional wall relief that explored the innovational idea of a wall hanging being sculptural. Hinman constructed a wooden framework (which you can view in our “verso” image) that he then stretched over the canvas, creating a dynamic interlocking shapes. Using primary colors, Hinman displays a hard-edge color field that plays with light and shadow, manipulating the viewer’s perception of space. By applying contrasting tones to the angular, three-dimensional surface, Hinman generates the illusion of depth and movement. The interplay between painted surfaces and the shadows they cast causes the works to appear to change as light shifts or a viewer moves around the work. This makes the work feel alive, with the surface seeming to advance or recede depending on the brightness and the juxtaposition of colors. His works add an contemporary and unexpected presence to a room, even though he created this dynamic in the early 1970’s, it was a progressive exploration with which people are still behind on understanding and living with it.
Hinman was inspired to explore shaped canvases by a desire to break away from the traditional rectangular or square frame of painting and to challenge the boundaries between painting and sculpture. In the early 1960’s Hinman began experimenting with three-dimensional wooden structures, using his background in drafting and carpentry to construct canvases that projected from the wall. Hinman’s approach was influenced by the aesthetics of “primary structures” and the work of contemporaries like Ellsworth Kelly.