A modernist, innovative painter and sculptor whose styles ranged from Cubism to Pop Art, Michael Hurson was born in Youngstown, Ohio and beginning in the late 1960s, became a part of the New York art scene. His longtime dealer was Paula Cooper, and his first one-person exhibition in New York was in 1974 at the Museum of Modern Art. Although he was more associated with painting, his MOMA entries were 'Projects', "seven meticulously detailed, balsa-wood models of modern interiors. Placed at eye level throughout the gallery, the works were like miniature stage sets for plays waiting to take place."

Eight years later, at the Public Theatre in New York, he created "a sort of immobile puppet show, a gosspipy conversation between two lightbulbs, one red, the other blue---two sides of the same persona." It is likely that Hurson was influenced in this exhibition by his work, just after completing attendance at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1960s, of serving as assistant to puppeteer Burr Tilstrom in his popular television series, Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

At this time, Hurson was associating with leading edge artists such as Jennifer Bartlett and Robert Moskowitz and was doing rather spare paintings to capture happenings of the minute. These works were intended as statements to counter grandiose American epic pieces. He also did portrait drawings, and "Cubist style drawings of pencils, wire coat hangers, and odd bits of furniture" with the goal of bringing to life objects that seemed inanimate.

Michael Hurson died at age 65 in Nyack, New York.


Sources:
Thomas Lawson, "Fractional Gift---Passages", Artforum, April 2007, p. 67
New York Times Obituary (for correct place of death)