Jack Fulton (b. 1939)

“Homage to Ancient Zuni Astronomers,” made in 1979, is one of several works from Fulton’s “Suite Nevada,” a portfolio of gelatin silver prints layered with graphite, India ink, and wash. Taking a cue from the graphic impact of newspaper headlines, Fulton expands the field of the image, creating a hybrid visual language of drawings, photographs, and text. Fulton developed this unique technique in the 1960s—creating photograms built up from layers of objects and photographic transparencies, then etched with drawings. These compositions combine the mundane and the mythic, tapping into Fulton’s personal symbology and the unanswered questions of prehistory—a recurrent theme throughout his work

Jack Fulton (b. 1939) spent his childhood summers at a family home in Inverness—his uncle owned an oyster business on Tomales Bay. A self-taught photographer, Fulton is celebrated for his experimental approach to photography. In 1959, after a brief career as an engineer, he picked up a Nikon rangefinder camera and began to document the swirl of political & cultural activity in the Bay Area. He also worked on films, collaborated with artists and poets, and organized large-scale happenings. Fulton taught at the San Francisco Art Institutefor 45 years beginning in 1969—and was beloved by his students. His investigations into color techniques & processes received early critical attention. He currently lives in San Rafael, where he continues to develop new work to this day.

Fulton’s photographic work has been recognized in more than thirty solo exhibitions and fifty group exhibitions in museums and galleries nationwide and abroad. A National Endowment for the Arts fellowship recipient, Fulton’s photographs are in the permanent collection of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Oakland Museum of California; Los Angeles County Museum; Chicago Art Institute; Bibliothèque Nationale; National Museum of Modern Art in Paris; among other public and private collections.

Bolinas Museum featured Jack Fulton’s work in the exhibition “Heterogeneous Medley of Recent History.”