Richard Hyman

Richard Hyman grew up with charcoal dust on his fingers, learning the old ways in Saturday classes at the Maryland Institute. He was a boy of the Beaux Arts, drawing with chamois in hand, spraying shellac fixative to keep his work steady. Later, Hyman would go to attend the University of Pennsylvania and finish an MFA at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1960. He spent hours in museums, copying the style of the old masters. 

Hyman and his wife started their own business, making art for public spaces—paintings, murals, sculptures, and serigraphs for hotels, hospitals, academies, and high-rise lobbies. In 1980, he wrote The Professional Artist’s Manual.  After 1990, he painted just for himself.

His work is often his reminisces; adult glimpses of a child’s world, often featuring naked forms. Back when Hyman began his career in the arts, nudity was still quite controversial. Growing up near Baltimore’s Gayety Burlesque Theater, he knew the allure of what was half-shown, half-hidden. What was visible in dim purple light is now glaringly in the open presented as works of art.