James Hayward, West Coast Painter with a Cult Following, Dies at 82
West Coast abstract painter James Hayward died on April 16 at age 82, according to an obituary posted by his studio. Born in San Francisco in 1943, Hayward studied at San Diego State University and completed UCLA’s graduate program in 1969, later developing a distinctive approach to monochrome abstraction from the mid-1970s onward using intentionally thick, chunky paint. He received early commercial exposure at New York’s Sidney Janis Gallery but exhibited primarily on the West Coast, including more than 10 solo shows at San Francisco’s Modernism, and later shows at Roberts Projects and the Pit in Los Angeles and Miles McEnery Gallery in New York. His work is held by institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and he worked for much of his career on a horse farm in Moorpark.
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This story was covered in Restitution Tangles, Warped Art Routes, Museum Reboots