Untitled Drawing No. 19

Texas-born Frank Hursh aligned most of his career with Abstract Expressionism, the dominant art style in mid-century America. He was at Black Mountain College for the duration of the 1949–1950 academic year, where he took instruction from Joseph Fiore for painting and Pete Jennerjahn for color theory, who were themselves students of Josef Albers. Hursh said his experience at BMC was pivotal in his career; he found the most important takeaway was to be honest with himself.

Most of Hursh’s career was spent in Texas or Mexico City. After getting a master’s degree in Texas and enlisting preemptively for the Korean War, Hursh used his GI Bill to study painting in Mexico. He eventually took a position at a major animation studio in Mexico City that led him to teach animation courses at the Academia de San Carlos. Though he briefly returned to the United States in the 60s and 70s, he settled in Mexico to teach classes in painting and drawing.