Earl Cunningham

by Robert Carleton Hobbs

The seductively bright colors, naive frankness, and highly detailed imagery of the paintings of American artist Earl Cunningham (1893-1977) are hard to resist. Whether depicting the Maine coast or Florida's Everglades, harbor scenes with Norse ships or American schooners, or Seminole Indian encampments, Cunningham's work comprises a major contribution to America's artistic heritage. Great attention has recently been focused on folk and outsider art, and among these artists Cunningham is remarkable, both for the length of his career and for his development from a more traditional "American Primitive," as he labeled himself in the 1930s, to a sophisticated vernacular artist in the 1960s and 1970s. In Earl Cunningham: Painting an American Eden author Robert Hobbs gives a vivid picture of the adventurous and controversial life of this self-taught artist. Choosing not to view Cunningham's work as separate from mainstream cultural trends, Hobbs shows how the artist carried on a dialogue with