Earl Cunningham
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Earl Cunningham (1893–1977) was a twentieth-century American
folk artist Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tra ...
. Cunningham was a self-taught artist who painted mostly landscapes of the coasts of Maine, New York, Nova Scotia, Michigan, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. He used vivid colors, flat perspective, and a few recurrent themes. He added incongruous details, "such as flamingos in Maine and Viking ships in Florida," to his work. Cunningham was born in
Edgecomb, Maine Edgecomb is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,188 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of East Edgecomb, North Edgecomb, and Pools Landing. The town was named for George Edgcumbe, 1st Earl of Mount Ed ...
, the third of six children. He left home at age 13 and made a living as a tinker and peddler. About four years later, he began to paint and sell pictures of boats and landscapes. He obtained a license to work as a river and coastal pilot, and worked on sailing ships along the eastern seaboard of the United States. He married Iva Moses, a piano teacher on June 29, 1915. He continued to paint and he and his wife split the next eighteen years between Florida and Maine, where they had a farm. They divorced between 1936 and 1940. In 1940 he sold the farm in Maine and bought a farm in Waterboro, South Carolina. During the Second World War, he raised chickens for the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
. Cunningham moved to
Saint Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabit ...
in 1949 and opened an art gallery and curio shop. In 1961 he sent a painting titled "The Everglades" to Jacqueline Kennedy that is on display at
John F. Kennedy Library and Museum The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and museum of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963), the 35th president of the United States (1961–1963). It is located on Columbia Point in the Dorchester neighb ...
in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. In 1969, his work began to attract serious notice, and in 1970 was exhibited at the then Loch Haven Art Center in Orlando. His reputation continued to grow, and a large number of his paintings were shown at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in
Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal Resort town, resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County near the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coastline, its population ...
in August 1974. His art continued to draw attention long after his death on December 29, 1977 (he committed suicide at age 84). He was inducted into the Florida Artist's Hall of fame on June 2, 2003. His works were on display beginning August 10, 2007 at the Smithsonian American Art Gallery in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, the first stop on a national tour.


Artistic style

Largely considered a folk artist, Cunningham painted the American landscape of the Atlantic coast and its intercoastal ecosystem with dock workers, fishermen, farmers, wildlife and even American Indian tribes. As he traveled up and down the coast he painted his reflections of the surroundings. He depicted accurately detailed shoreline features in the tradition of memory painting. He painted over 400 landscapes, of which a large number reside at The Mennello Museum of American Art in Orlando, Fla. His childlike style is typical of folk art, which embraces art from artists that have little or no formal training and use techniques uniquely their own. Cunningham was familiar with
Grandma Moses Anna Mary Robertson Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961), or Grandma Moses, was an American folk artist. She began painting in earnest at the age of 78 and is a prominent example of a newly successful art career at an advanced age. H ...
and even gained the nickname "Grandpa Moses". His landscapes offer flattened forms shown in profile and human images resembling doll-like figures. He was not a good painter of human figures, but could draw animals well. In fact, Cunningham loved nature and just about every one of his pictures contained trees, birds or both. It appears, at first glance, that Cunningham was a naive painter. "The painter was simple like a fox." His idyllic scenes revolve around a simpler time. If an observer did not know the dates in which the paintings were completed, placing the works in the 1800s would not be an inaccurate assumption. Although this would be incorrect, that was the reason for Cunningham's approach. These scenes are in contrast to the modern innovations of the 1950s that were happening all around him. The depictions of the world in Cunningham's paintings were the world as he wanted to see it and not an actual portrayal of his lifetime. For instance, there are never any cities to be found in his works. He only painted small towns. The paintings hold a complicated significance regarding the state of American life. It is apparent that Cunningham did not take to the advancements and modernization of the country and never showed any signs of innovation in his paintings. Instead of simply being considered a folk artist, Cunningham can be seen as a modernist painter. His art expresses an overall sense of goodness, optimism and a utopian harmony. He achieves this feeling through strange sites, such as palm trees under snow and visions of Viking ships, along with bright colors. He expresses a specific vision by combining vivid colors in a less than scholarly fashion. Many times it appears that one is looking into the scene from a bird's eye view. A unique point of view is paired with these strange colors. There are also inaccurate proportions in many of the paintings.Dietsch, Deborah K. "Earthly Paradise-Cunningham's Vibrant America." Washington Times 18 Aug. 2007. He wanted to create the illusion that size, or proportion, is in the eye of the beholder. The more important an object, the larger it should appear. This is how things seem in the minds of those who are innocent and naive to the ways of the world; this concept does not take away from the ability to enjoy the subject matter of the paintings. It represents a response to modern American life undergoing rapid transitions.


References


External links


Earl Cunningham
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Earl 20th-century American painters American male painters 1893 births 1977 deaths People from St. Augustine, Florida People from Edgecomb, Maine 1977 suicides 20th-century American male artists