In Plain Sight - Francis Cunningham Exhibition Video Walk-Through

Francis Cunningham exhibition of paintings and drawings is currently on display in Midtown.  Today we're bringing you a video walk-through with the artist.  It was recorded one day after the show opened last week.

Studio Matters Reviews Francis Cunningham's Jerusalem Exhibiton

A few weeks ago we wrote about the Jerusalem's Barbur Gallery showing In the Finest of Company, an exhibition including works by Francis Cunningham in "the finest company" of students, teachers, friends: Pesach Slabosky, Nomi Bruckmann, Avi Sabah, Masha Zusman, Yanai Segal, George Grosz.

Francis Cunningham could not attend the show, so we were happy to find a blog entry on Studio Matters, maintained by Maureen Mullarkey, reviewing the Jerusalem show.  The review by the guest blogger, Heddy Breuer Abramowitz, details the reasons for bringing all the artists together, which are personal and professional. Heddy Breuer Abramowitz starts off by pointing out a view of "disdain towards teaching that reduces those who shape future generations to ones that haven’t made the grade."  The rest of the review clearly questions such a view.

Here are two installation photos giving some idea about how the show is organized.  We are hoping to see and post here some more images of the works by all the artists, side-by-side.

Francis Cunningham's paintng of Pesach Slabosky and Pesach Slabosky's drawing of Francis Cunningham.

Pesach Slabosky's painting and one of the student works hanged between the main works.

New three-figure piece, progress report in pictures.

It's been almost a year since Dick started the most recent figure piece. We've been trying to document it at various stages. Below we go chronologically to show the process in a few images.

As always for a large work, Dick starts with a map.

The map. December 2009

The map is transferred to the canvas and followed by an under-painting.

Partial underpainting. December 2009

Here are the first color spots.

First spot. December 2009

Color-value relationships (color spots) are  abstracted directly from the appearance of nature.  Every edge is defined by color-value on either side of the edge. Three-dimensional form and space are produced by these visually observed relationships.

3.31.2010

Israel Hershberg remarked on how abstract the process is.

10.28.2010

Many sessions later, the painting is still in progress.

Vilhelm Hammershoi Exhibition Catalog

Today I'm posting a video, which we hope will be the beginning of a new series of video art books and catalogs reviews by Francis Cunningham. We used Dick's no longer brand new, still digital camera.
This series was inspired by a magazine review series by graphic designer Michael Bojkowski in London called Reading List.

So here is the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi's 1997 Copenhagen, Ordrupgaard
Museum and Musee d'Orsay exhibition catalog review.

An invitation to a show in Jerusalem

The following invitation, including the text, recently arrived at Francis Cunningham's studio. Alas, Dick will not be able to attend. 

The image in the invitation is a portrait of Pesach Slabosky by Francis Cunningham.  The text explains it and the origins of the exhibition.

בחברה הכי יפה



In the Finest Company

פראנסיס קנינגהאם, פסח סלבוסקי, נעמי בריקמן, אבי סבח, מאשה זוסמן, ינאי סגל, ג'אורג' גרוס

Francis Cunningham, Pesach Slabosky, Nomi Bruckmann, Avi Sabah, Masha Zusman, Yanai Segal, George Grosz 

     When we both were younger, Francis (Dick) Cunningham was my teacher at the Brooklyn Museum Art School (of blessed memory*).  We have been close friends ever since.  Dick has made five trips to Israel, where he has traveled and painted.  He has given workshops at Bezalel, and his work was exhibited in the exhibit, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 1909-1999, Contemporary Views,   [תל אביב-יפו 1909-1999 נופים עכשיויים] at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in 1999. 
     The name of the exhibit, In the Finest Company, is meant to express my pleasure in friendship and collegiality towards me on the part of the participants, over long and shorter periods of time.  The name and conceptualizing of the exhibition  are mine, but Cunningham has the credit for the fact that there is an exhibition. His desire that he and I should have an exhibit together in Israel was what made me want to do it.
    These are the artists.  Dick and myself.  Nomi Bruckmann, who is my wife.  Nomi was not formally Dick’s student, but she has maintained her own close relationship with him since the days when we three met at the Brooklyn Museum. The members of Barbur: Avi Sabah, Yanai Segal, and Masha Zusman. I thank them for not just hosting the exhibition, but also for agreeing to respond to the works of Dick, Nomi, and myself, with their own works.  We are fortunate, too, to have available a work by George Grosz, the German master.  Cunningham studied with Grosz in New York and remembers him fondly.  His principal teacher, according to him, was the American painter, Edwin Dickinson.  (There is a painting by Dickinson in the collection of the Israel Museum, which I have been told has never been exhibited.) 
    Most unfortunately, despite Cunningham’s desire to be present, he was not able to make the trip.  We shall be raising a glass to him.

Pesach Slabosky
*This is a story in itself.  Since the 1970’s, The Borough of Brooklyn, in New York, has had a monumental upgrading, in which The Brooklyn Museum has taken part.  From being a little-visited site, it has become a major New York art venue.  As part of making that happen, the museum closed the art school, which had operated for more than fifty years, and was making a profit, to make more exhibition space.

Image: Nomi Bruckmann

Image: Francis Cunningham "Pesach Slabosky" 

Image: Pesach Slabosky "Francis Cunningham"

                                                        

Sheffield in the Autumn by Francis Cunningham

This is the final installment of Francis Cunningham photography from the country in the late summer and early fall 2010. See individual photographs here.

Sheffield in the Summer by Francis Cunningham

Here is another set of photographs taken by Francis Cunningham in the summer. See the slideshow below as individual photos here.

Looking back. Summer in Maine II.

All photographs in this slideshow, but one, were taken by Francis Cunningham.
You can view them individually here.

This Summer Francis Cunningham Takes Photos

I'm sorry for taking too long to post this wonderful set of photos Dick handed over to me when he visited NYC a few weeks ago. The story goes, with the camera he had gotten before going away to the country for the summer, he's been doing photography. Here is a beautiful, unedited set from a trip he took further north-east from the Berkshires, to Maine.
It's a very long post, so keep scrolling. The images are the classic Dick Cunningham, figurative painter, but here are a few unexpected close-ups of car wheels and such that recall some more abstract works my him. They really surprised me - the subject and composition. I can't wait to see more.
--perke