Carl Hall papers

Carl Albin Hall was a prolific painter, writer, teacher, researcher, and arts advocate who created much of his work in Salem, Oregon. He is known for his paintings of the Willamette Valley, the Oregon coast, the female nude, and imagery inspired by the Northwest Coast Native cultures of Alaska. He was born on September 17, 1921 in Washington, D.C. and died on June 6, 1996 in Salem, Oregon.

Hall grew up in East Detroit, Michigan, and was the second oldest of seven children of Walter and Ella Hall. Hall’s artistic talent was encouraged and nurtured by his parents, who created a studio space in their home to accommodate his works. While in high school, Hall received a scholarship to attend the Meinzinger School where he studied under Carlos Lopez, a Cuban artist who served as Hall’s mentor and advocate. Under Lopez's mentorship, Hall successfully submitted his work to juried exhibitions at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and other major venues. His painting, Interlochen, Michigan, which he completed at age nineteen, was purchased by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1940.

At age twenty-one, Hall was drafted into the army and assigned to Camp Adair near Corvallis, Oregon for basic training. In 1943, while stationed in Medford, Oregon, he met Phyllis Blake at the USO Club in Ashland. They married on July 12, 1944 in Marysville, California. Hall left for the Pacific Theater a few days later. Hall served in combat duty as infantry and army artist in the Philippines and Okinawa, Japan, from 1944 through early 1946. As an army artist, Hall created maps and sketches for his platoon. While in service, Hall maintained a daily journal and often sent sketches through the mail to his wife and family. After his discharge from the military, the Halls moved temporarily to Detroit, Michigan, and then settled permanently in Salem, Oregon in 1946. The Halls raised four children on a thirty-acre property where Carl shared his love of nature with his family. In 1948 Hall was hired to teach part-time at Willamette University in Salem. He also worked part-time at the Allen Hardware Store and the R. L. Elfstrom Company department store to bring in additional income while his wife, Phyllis, worked at the Oregon State Library. He was Willamette’s Artist in Residence and a professor of painting, drawing, printmaking, and design until his retirement in 1986.

Hall was associated with the Julien Levy Gallery in New York during the 1940s. This relationship began during Hall’s army deployment as his father, Walter, served as the executor of Hall’s works and managed the transportation of paintings with Julien Levy. Hall's solo exhibition at the Levy Gallery in 1947 resulted in the purchase of his painting Cradles by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. As a Magic Realist painter, Hall used traditional techniques of drawing, modeling, and glazing to create detailed and structured paintings that combine clear textures and forms with coastal or valley mist. His style contrasted greatly with the Northwest modernist painting practiced by contemporary artists Charles Heaney, C.S. Price, David McCosh, and William Givler. Hall showed his work in juried national exhibitions and many regional exhibitions. His work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Swope Art Museum (Terre Haute, Indiana), Wichita Art Museum, Williams College Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Boise Art Museum, Museum of Northwest Art (La Conner, Washington), Whatcom Museum (Bellingham, Washington), Phoenix Art Museum, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (University of Oregon), Schneider Museum of Art (Southern Oregon University), Portland Community College, and Reed College. The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon houses an extensive collection of Hall’s paintings and sketches and includes the Carl Hall Gallery of Pacific Northwest and American Art, which is named in recognition of his long career at Willamette University.