CARROLL CLOAR (1913-1993)

Arkansas-born Carroll Cloar drew inspiration from his life in the South in his paintings that uniquely combine regionalism with magic realism. The artist studied at Memphis Academy of Art, Southwestern at Memphis and the Art Students League in New York and travelled extensively throughout the country and Mexico, never straying from his now-synonymous Southern subject matter. After exhibiting in New York and gaining national attention, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1955 where he spent the remainder of his career devoted to themes of the rural South executed in his distinctive painting style. His work can be found in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville; and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, among others.