Carroll Cloar

Background

Cloar, Carroll was born on January 18, 1913 in Earle, Arkansas, United States. Son of Charles W. and Eva (David) Cloar.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Southwestern College, Memphis, 1934; Bachelor of Arts honorary doctorate, 1978; student, Memphis Academy Art, 1935; student, Art Students League, New York City, 1936-1940.

Career

Guy Northrop, in his introduction on page 24 to Hostile Butterflies and Other Paintings by Carroll Cloar, (1977), quoted Cloar describing his images as "American faces, timeless dress and timeless customs.. the last of old America that isn"t long for this earth." His Panther Bourne work depicted a surreal, Southern-mythic nature scene. Cloar employed pointillism in his painting "Waiting up for Lettie," creating over 800 works in his lifetime. He moved to Memphis in 1930, attending Southwestern at Memphis College (later known as Rhodes College) as an English major.

His recurrent themes of a "homecoming," implying that the essential beauty of a locale is best understood by one who has left a beloved place behind and then returned, are echoed in his own personal experience of traveling abroad for years and then returning to the South.

He began his travels in Europe after college, before returning to Memphis to study at Memphis College of Artist He studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1936 to 1940.

A series of lithographs he created in that period of the landscape and people of his Earle, Arkansas, hometown led to his receipt of a McDowell Traveling Fellowship in 1940. Cloar traveled throughout the western United States and Mexico until World World War II began.

He then joined the Army Air Corps for the war effort.

Cloar visited Mexico on a 1946 Guggenheim Fellowship. He traveled around Central and South America until 1950. His first one-man show was held in 1953 in Memphis.

He moved permanently to Memphis in 1955, after determining the direction of his art was rooted in his Southern United States. experience.

Cloar then completed 14 works in 1955, including the representative work, "My Father Was Big as a Tree." A New York showing in 1956 helped establish his career nationally. Tennessee museums later held more than 10 exhibitions of his works, while he also displayed his work in New York showings.

Cloar died in Memphis in 1993. Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Master of Arts

Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas

Art Museum of Sunrise, Charleston, West Virginia

Art Museum of The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee

Brooklyn Museum of Fine Art, Brooklyn, New York

Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio

Carroll Reese Museum, Johnson City, Tennessee

Cheekwood Museum, Nashville, Tennessee

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

High Museum of Art,Atlanta, Georgia

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, District of Columbia

Library of Congress, Washington, District of Columbia

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Master of Arts

Museum of Fine Arts, Saint St. Petersburg, Florida

Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York

Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey

Rockford Art Gallery, Rockford, Illinois

Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Master of Arts

State University of New York, Albany, New York

Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, Tennessee

Tennessee State Museum, Nashville h, Tennessee

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut

Whitney Museum, New York, New York

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Master of Arts

University of Memphis Libraries, Memphis, Tennessee.

Achievements

• Carroll Cloar has been listed as a notable artist by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Hostile Butterflies: And Other Paintings

    (1st ed. Quarto. Very Good in Good d/j, neat gift inscript...)

  • Hostile butterflies, and other paintings
  • Hostile Butterflies and Other Paintings by Carroll Cloar

Membership

Former trustee Brooks Memorial Gallery Art, Memphis. Served with United States Army Air Force, 1942-1945. Honorary member Phi Beta Kappa.

Connections

Father:

Charles W. Cloar

Mother:

Eva (David) Cloar