Clinton Adams (1918-2002) was born in Glendale, California. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, earning a bachelor’s degree in education in 1940 and a master’s degree in 1942. That same year, he had his first exhibition at the American Contemporary Gallery in Los Angeles and joined the arts faculty at UCLA. His teaching career was soon interrupted by military service, where he served as the sergeant-major of an engineer camouflage battalion in the Army Air Forces.
In 1946, Adams returned to UCLA and taught courses in design, technique, and art history. At the suggestion of his colleague Stanton Macdonald-Wright, he began creating lithographs in the shop of Lynton R. Kistler in 1948. In 1950, Adams held his first solo exhibition at the UCLA Art Gallery, and his work was featured in the First International Biennial of Color Lithography at the Cincinnati Museum of Art. During this time, he participated extensively in group exhibitions across the country and taught at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1953 and 1954. That year, Adams became chairman of the art department at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. In 1957, he became head of the art department at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
In the summer of 1959, Adams began discussions with June Wayne regarding her plans to establish a lithography workshop and printer training program under the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation. In 1960, he returned to Los Angeles to become the associate director of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, working closely with Director June Wayne and Technical Director Garo Antreasian. In 1961, Adams accepted the position of dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. With foundation support for Tamarind soon to expire, plans were developed to move the shop to Albuquerque, allowing its programs to continue under the auspices of the University of New Mexico in 1962. Thus, the Tamarind Institute reopened with Adams as director.
During the 1970s, Adams shifted his focus from creating art and dedicated his efforts to administration, teaching, research, and writing. He collaborated with Garo Antreasian on The Tamarind Book of Lithography: Art & Techniques, a technical manual based on the workshop's printmaking innovations. In 1973, he published a monograph on Fritz Scholder's prints. The following year, Adams founded the scholarly journal The Tamarind Technical Papers.
In 1976-77, Adams served as interim associate provost and dean of faculties at the University of New Mexico before returning to teaching. His third book, American Lithographers, 1900-1960: The Artists and Their Printers, was published in 1983. In 1987, the University of New Mexico Art Museum organized a retrospective exhibition of his paintings.
After retiring from teaching and administration in 1985, Adams continued to paint, create prints, and exhibit regularly while maintaining his scholarly activities until his death in 2002.
Adams’ work has been showcased in over 60 solo exhibitions and is represented in many public collections, including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Brooklyn Museum, DePaul University, Krannert Art Museum (University of Illinois), Los Angeles County Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, Norton Simon Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Spencer Museum of Art, Syracuse University, Victoria and Albert Museum (London), and Walker Art Museum. His numerous honors include election to the National Academy of Design in 1987, receiving the Southern Graphic Council’s Printmaker-Emeritus Award in 1998, and winning the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts of New Mexico in 1985.
