Hinman has influenced generations of artists with his work. He builds "reverse ribs: into his hard edged canvases giving them contour. His work is three dimensional in the real world not simply ON the canvas.
His work is about space and these contours as well as minimalist coloration.
His work is in the permanent collections of the Rockefeller Collection, MoMa and the Albright-Knox Gallery. Many of the early exhibitions Hinman was included in, at The Whitney (1965) and Shape & Structure at Tiboe de Nagy, have become legend. He was a Guggenheim fellow last year (2012).