A ubiquitous presence in New York’s art world, he also existed outside it, using 19th-century techniques to create ethereal, haunting images.
A ubiquitous presence in New York’s art world, he also existed outside it, using 19th-century techniques to create ethereal, haunting images.
A ubiquitous presence in New York’s art world, he also existed outside it, using 19th-century techniques to create ethereal, haunting images.
Hal Hirshorn, an artist known for his ubiquity around New York City’s cultural scene, who nevertheless managed to exist outside its manic commercial hustle, using antique cameras and homemade paints to produce haunting photographs and landscape paintings, died on Feb. 4. He was 60.
His sister, Harriet Hirshorn, said the cause was coronary artery disease. He died at a friend’s apartment in Manhattan, where he had gone to celebrate the opening of a group show featuring his work, “Let There Be Light,” at the Church of the Heavenly Rest on the Upper East Side.
New York artists are often spoken of in monolithic terms, as if they are all racing to be the next Jeff Koons. Many are. For those who aren’t, Mr. Hirshorn served as an avatar and inspiration, a model for how to live a creative life seemingly unencumbered by monetary concerns.
While other artists of his generation rode the art-market boom of the last three decades, he remained aloof, rarely putting his work up for sale at galleries. His spare website features a few of his paintings and photographs, but no contact information or personal details.
His work was absolutely analog. Mr. Hirshorn made his own paints using traditional ingredients, and he scoured the Chelsea flea market for antique camera parts, the older and more obscure the better.