James Hayward (September 22, 1943 – April 16, 2026) was an American contemporary abstract painter who lived and worked in Moorpark, California. Hayward's paintings are usually divided in two bodies of work: flat paintings (1975–1984) and thick paintings (1984–2026). He worked in series, some of which were re ongoing, and include The Annunciations, The Stations of the Cross, the Red Maps, Fire Paintings, Smoke Paintings, Sacred and Profane, and Nothing's Perfect series.
Contents
Education and teaching
Hayward got his Bachelor of Arts at San Diego State University, San Diego, California, studied in the Graduate art program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1966 to 1969 and got his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Washington, Seattle in 1972.
Taught:
1994–2012 – Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, Graduate Art Programs
1999 – University of California, Los Angeles (winter quarter)
1997 – University of Texas at San Antonio (guest artist / fall semester)
1992–1995 – University of California, Los Angeles
1987 – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (guest artist / spring quarter)
1985 – College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
1983 – University of California, Berkeley, CA (guest artist)
1980 – Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota (guest artist)
1979 – California State University, Bakersfield (guest artist)
1976–1978 – College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Writing
In 2010, Hayward produced a book of short stories entitled Indiscretion: Selected Stories, based on his reminiscences, "war stories" as his close friend artist Ed Moses called them. Writing in The Huffington Post, Gordy Grundy fescribed it as "a chronicle of a ribald life in the arts as well as a glimpse of SoCal living".
Exhibitions
Hayward exhibited extensively, particularly in California, from his first show solo show in 1976. He exhibited at historically significant galleries such as Claire S. Copley Gallery, Riko Mizuno Gallery and Rosamund Felsen Gallery and Roberts Projects in Los Angeles and Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, and his work has been included in museum exhibitions in institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., The Renaissance Society At The University Of Chicago, and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, England. among others. Through the 1990s and 2000s he exhibited extensively at Modernism, San Francisco and Ace Contemporary Exhibitions in Los Angeles. Artist Mike Kelley curated a solo exhibition of his work in 2005 at the Cue Art Foundation in New York calling Hayward "one of the few truly important West Coast Painters." Also in 2005, critic and educator Dave Hickey included his work in a curated show entitled Step into Liquid, at the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles.
Hayward's work was included in "Under the Big Black Sun" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, curated by Paul Schimmel in 2011. A solo exhibition of his work was mounted at Richard Telles Fine Art, in Los Angeles titled James Hayward Paintings from the 70's in conjunction with the Getty's Pacific Standard Time in 2011. Meanwhile, Hayward's Annunciation paintings, were displayed in the solo exhibition Variations on the Annunciation at Meliksetian | Briggs in Los Angeles in 2013.
Death
Hayward died on April 16, 2026, at the age of 82.
Works in institutional and museum collections
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Denver Museum of Modern Art, Denver, Colorado
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California
Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, California
University Art Museum, Santa Barbara, California
Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida
Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California
Anderson School of Business, University of California, Los Angeles, California
Honors and awards
1977 – Young Talent Award, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1981 – Japan-United States Creative Arts Fellowship
1983 – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship
1991 – Awards in the Visual Arts 10 Grant
1993 – National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1996 – Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant