FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM

A GENERALIST PAINTER

Still Life, Landscape and the Figure

"The two nudes in this exhibition are the most recent in my 35 years of painting the figure. I have always worked primarily from specific individuals, real people, in preference to idealized or "out-of-the-head" figures. The model here is Regina Hawkins, a former dancer who understands what I have for years felt, that the body in its forms and movements expresses the spirit, mind and emotion of any individual human being.

The snowscape is a recent landscape, an A.M. sun in a gray sky in late December, '05. "Knoedler's Plans" are the gallery plans for Knoedler's on 57th Street in 1968, plans I used for an exhibition which I curated.

I have always sought out subjects that I care about in the world of people, places and objects. Whether the painting is completed in a single session or required a year or more, the range of painting I have been able to take up has liven me a lifetime of pleasure and of work. It is a privilege to exhibit in a gallery that is appreciative and supportive and for this I thank Laurel Tracey and Jon Peters."

- Francis Cunningham