"Where The Southern Cross The Yellow Dog" by Carroll Cloar, 1965. Casein tempera on Masonite. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar. |
"The Artist In His Studio" by Carroll Cloar, 1963. Casein tempera on Masonite. Collection of Dianne and Bobby Tucker. Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar. |
"Sunday Afternoon In Sweet Home, Arkansas" by Carroll Cloar, 1971. Acrylic on Masonite. Collection of Dianne and Bobby Tucker. Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar. |
"Waiting For The Hot Springs Special" by Carroll Cloar, 1964. Casein tempera on Masonite. Collection of Dianne and Bobby Tucker. Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar. |
"The Smiling Moon Café" by Carroll Cloar, 1965. Casein tempera on Masonite. Collection of Dianne and Bobby Tucker. Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar. |
The painting at the beginning of the post, "Where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog" portrays a location in Moorhead, Mississippi, in the heart of Blues country. The title comes from the W.C. Handy song, "The Yellow Dog Blues" which includes the line "He's gone where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog", referring to the crossing of two railroad lines that made Moorhead an active passenger and freight connection for decades. (To see Eartha Kitt sing it accompanied by Nat 'King' Cole on YouTube, try the link here). The painting is representative of the impoverished locals of the Delta relocating to a place that, hopefully, offers a better life.
"Halloween" by Carroll Cloar, 1960. Casein tempera on Masonite. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Image copyright estate of Carroll Cloar. |
In "Halloween" an adolescent girl frolics in a field wearing a grotesque mask while hooded figures, "Klu Kluxers", emerge in the distance. Are the occupants of the house asleep? Or is it abandoned? A comment on the future of the South as seen in 1960? It's up to interpretation. This one is more ominous than most in the exhibition. Other paintings are more hopeful. This is just a handful of the ones that have architecture playing a part of the message, an interesting vehicle for subtext in the mid-century work of Carroll Cloar.
The exhibition, which includes almost seventy paintings, includes loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Hirshorn Museum and Gardens, in addition to the collection of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and private collections. The exhibition continues at Brooks through September 15, and then travels on a national tour that includes the Arkansas Arts Center and the Georgia Museum of Art through 2014.
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Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThanks, A.D.R.
DeleteThese paintings have a haunting detached quality. Love them.
ReplyDeleteMary
I appreciate your comment, Mary. Many of the paintings do indeed have a dream-like representation.
DeleteThere is something rather Naive meets Seurat about his paintings, and they are very appealing, catching the hot, dusty almost haunting sense of foreboding about the area. The vibrant colours are very striking too.
ReplyDeleteC., they are much better in person, of course, when one can see each touch of paint. Thank you for commenting.
DeleteI have been looking for an excuse to visit Athens, Georgia...now I have it!
ReplyDeleteJ., I have never been, but I've heard it is a pretty town. I think you'll enjoy seeing the paintings and be sure not to miss the details of the artist's youth, his isolation on the farm, and his friendship with Charlie Mae.
Delete