Laurel Tracey Gallery > From Israel To Iceland

Francis Cunningham

FROM ISRAEL TO ICELAND

September 14, 2004 through October 14, 2004

The Laurel Tracey Gallery invites you to see the world
through the eyes of painter Francis Cunningham
in the gallery's first exclusive online exhibition

(Scroll Down to View)

10 White Street
Red Bank New Jersey 07701
732-224-0760

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

"Imagine yourself placed in a landscape you particularly enjoy - deep woods, a sweeping view, a mountain waterfall. Imagine yourself there at 5:00 A.M., observing all day long the changing light.

Now imagine yourself with a paintbrush in your hand. How do you stabilize this constant change, gradual or dramatic, as it may appear? How do you decide what it is you want to talk about - the light, the shapes, the way your eye moves in the space?

The challenge of landscape is one of perpetual excitement. It takes an unflinching eye, and will, to stand in front of nature and let the nature come to you. It is easier, perhaps, to sit in the studio and let the repetitions of style control your response, but as we have seen with Impressionism, one can carry a style out-of-doors. Furthermore, we know that superb art can come from many directions, for there is no one approach.

I have, in landscape, sought out the changes and challenges in the variety of place. From the barren, northern desert of Iceland to the light in Israel, the green desert of southern Arizona and the coast of Scotland by the Irish Sea, I have sought what is inimitable to the place. Also, I have stayed at home in the Berkshires, painting landscapes large and small without, for me, ever a sense of repetition.

I love dealing with the endlessness of nature. Because I am limited by time and place, by my tools and who I am, each painting will record a landscape that itself is inimitable, either by myself or another person. There is, for me, dignity and consequence in the enterprise."

Francis Cunningham painting in Israel

Olive Trees Near Israel Museum, Jerusalem (6-8-89)
oil on linen
13" x 19"

Tile Roof, Hertzliya, Israel (5-17-00)
oil on linen
10" x 19"

White House, Hertzliya, Israel (5-16-00)
oil on linen
13" x 17"

Ben Shemen, Israel (5-17-89)
oil on linen
13" x 19"

University of Tel Aviv Art Gallery, Israel (1997)
oil on linen
23" x 33"

Path from the Beach, Martha
oil on linen
20" x 16"

Olive Tree, Bogliasco, Italy (1989)
oil on linen
15" x 12"

View near Vagliagli, Italy (1989)
oil on linen
14" x 24"

Two Cedars, Sheffield (2002)
oil on linen
71" x 36"

Back Pasture Landscape, Sheffield (2003)
oil on linen
29" x 40"

Apple Tree, Blue Sky, Sheffield (7-25-03 AM)
oil on linen
14" x 18"

Boat, Vinalhaven, Maine (2002)
oil on linen
9" x 10"

Telephone Pole, Vinalhaven, Maine (5-16-02 AM)
oil on linen
15" x 18"

Sea Roses, Watch Hill, Rhode Island (1990)
oil on linen
16" x 20"

Summer Porch, Watch Hill, Rhode Island (1990)
oil on linen
30" x 23"

Churchyard, Heltborg, Denmark (1986)
oil on linen
18" x 27"

Lunehoj, Jutland, Denmark (1986)
oil on linen
13" x 28"

Tumacacori Range, Tubac, Arizona (9-16-89)
oil on linen
16" x 22"

Cactus, Tubac, Arizona (9-26-89)
oil on linen
12" x 22"

Santa Rita Mountains, Tubac, Arizona (9-29-89)
oil on linen
12" x 28"

Cumulus Clouds, Tubac, Arizona (9-17-89)
oil on linen
15" x 20"

Fisherton Farm, Dunure, Scotland (1988)
oil on linen
19" x 25"

Moors, Dunure, Scotland (1988)
oil on linen
22" x 28"

Fire Rocks, Iceland (1986)
oil on linen
20" x 17"

Boula, Hredevatan, Iceland (1986)
oil on linen
17" x 22"

Hraunshefsnoxl, Iceland (1986)
oil on linen
14" x 25"

Hivalnessfridur, Iceland (1986)
oil on linen
27" x 15

BIOGRAPHY

Francis Cunningham was born in 1931 in New York City. He grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard College in 1953. After two years on active duty as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, he attended the Art Students League of New York, where he studies painting with Edwin Dickinson and drawing and anatomy with Robert Beverly Hale.

Cunningham has had one-man shows in Washington, Chicago and New York, where he exhibited at the Waverly, Salpeter and Hirschl and Adler galleries. He has had one-man shows in Stockholm and Copenhagen and has participated in group exhibitions extensively in the U.S.

He taught for eighteen years at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and for three years at the Art Students League. In 1980 he co-founded the New Brooklyn School of Life Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, Inc. with the sculptor Barney Hodes. In 1983 they co-founded the New York Academy of Art.

In 2004 Cunningham was awarded Artist Equity's Benjamin West Clinedist Medal for "the achievement of exceptional artistic merit." He was elected Associate Member of the National Academy of Design in 1992 and Academician in 1994.

Cunningham currently maintains studios in New York City and Mill River, Massachusetts. His work includes landscape, still-life and the human figure.