Alfred Hinton

Born in 1940, Hinton initially studied at Case-Western Reserve University but later received a B.A. (1967) from the University of Iowa, where he studied under Robert Knipschild and Mauricio Lasansky. He moved to Toronto to play professional football for the Toronto Argonauts (1962-1967), and later continued his education at the University of Cincinnati, receiving an M.F.A (1970) in painting and film making. In 1970 he joined the faculty at Western Michigan University. Hinton became a member of the Michigan Council for the Arts Advisory Panel in 1970. He was a visiting artist and Saginaw Valley Community College (1973) and the University of Michigan (1975-1976). He served, with Reginald Gammon, as coordinator for the Jackson Prison Art Program (1973-1974) and as Visual Arts Coordinator for the Michigan Academy of Arts and Sciences (1972-1974).

His early work can be characterized as figurative social realism, with emphasis on depictions of the black experience in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His later paintings consist of either figurative three-dimensional collage of abstract landscapes.