Published
01/05/2008
1. Describing in hindsight her initial encounter with Cunningham, Mennello stated, 'After reading this story, I am sure you will agree with me that it truly was "Fate" that took me to St Augustine so many years ago. If anyone had told me in 1969 when I first met Earl Cunningham that I would one day be the curator of his great collection of paintings, I would have laughed and called them quite mad'. ('The Collector's Story', in H Barbara Weinberg and Michael A Mennello. Earl Cunningham: Dreams Realized. Orlando, FL: The Mennello Museum of American Folk Art, 1998, p. 21).
2. The official exhibition schedule for 'Earl Cunningham's America' is as follows: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, 10 August-4 November 2007; the American Folk Art Museum, New York City, 4 March-3 August 2008; and the Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL, 6 March-2 August 2009.
3. For a comprehensive study of Cunningham's life and work, see Earl Cunningham: Painting an American Eden by art historian Robert Hobbs (New York: Harry N Abrams, 1994), a volume now out of print but available in public libraries and second-hand.
4. Virginia M Mecklenburg, 'The Dragon of St. George Street'. In: Wendell Garrett, Virginia Mecklenburg and Carolyn Weekly, Earl Cunningham's America. Smithsonian American Art Museum, p. 33.
5. Earl Cunningham: Dreams Realized, p. 27.
6. For more on Hubbard, see: Wendell Berry, Harlan Hubbard: His Live and Work. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990.
7. Earl Cunningham's America, p. 42.
8. Earl Cunningham: Dreams Realized, p. 31.
9. Gail Sher, The Intuitive Writer: Listening to Your Own Voice. New York: Penguin Compass, 2002, pp. 69-70.
Earl Cunningham.
Blue Sail Fleet Returns, after 1949. Oil on fibreboard. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr and Mrs Michael Mennello, 1988
Earl Cunningham.
Gathering Clouds off Little River Inlet, 1962. Oil on fibreboard. Collection of Marilyn L and Michael A Mennello
Earl Cunningham.
Hilton Head, 1938. Oil on fibreboard. Private collection, Los Angeles
Earl Cunningham.
Seminole Everglades, 1945. Oil on masonite. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Marilyn L Mennello and Mr Michael A. Mennello, 1997