CARROLL CLOAR (AMERICAN 1913-1993) "THE BIG HOUSE IN BIG FLAT"
Signed 'Carroll Cloar' bottom left; also titled, signed and dated 'Nov. 1975' verso, acrylic on Masonite
28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6cm)
Provenance: Private Collection, Nashville, Tennessee.
Private Collection, Florida.
Sotheby's, New York, sale of April 16, 2014, lot 19.
Acquired directly from the above sale.
Collection of Bonnie O'Boyle, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
LITERATURE:
Carroll Cloar, Hostile Butterflies, Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1977, p. 186, no. 483.
NOTE:
Born and raised on a cotton field in rural Arkansas, Carroll Cloar is perhaps best known for his poetically rendered and sometimes whimsical narrative evocations of the American South in the early twentieth century. Drawing upon the richness of small town and country life, Cloar's work depicts, in his own words, "American faces, timeless dress and timeless customs… the last of an old America that isn't long for this earth." For the source of these images, the artist turned inwards, to long preserved memories of his childhood, fantastical stories and family lore, as well as creative visions that he cultivated in his adolescent imagination. These were his own personal mythologies. Though he spent much of his adulthood traveling cross-country, as well as throughout Europe and Mexico, Cloar remained rooted in his southern identity and throughout his career continually returned to the land of his upbringing as the subject of his work. As the artist himself once wrote, "there is joy in the sense of belonging, of possessing and being possessed, by the land where you were born. There is
mixed emotion of remembering: places altered, people long passed."
With its lush, flower-studded fields, abundant green foliage and classic white clapboard house, Big House in Big Flat presents a idyllic and timeless scene of family life in the old American South. Its delicately stippled brushstrokes and dazzling colors create a dream-like effect, evoking a sense of nostalgia for a time long past.
Sale price
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Time, Location
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Signed 'Carroll Cloar' bottom left; also titled, signed and dated 'Nov. 1975' verso, acrylic on Masonite
28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6cm)
Provenance: Private Collection, Nashville, Tennessee.
Private Collection, Florida.
Sotheby's, New York, sale of April 16, 2014, lot 19.
Acquired directly from the above sale.
Collection of Bonnie O'Boyle, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
LITERATURE:
Carroll Cloar, Hostile Butterflies, Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1977, p. 186, no. 483.
NOTE:
Born and raised on a cotton field in rural Arkansas, Carroll Cloar is perhaps best known for his poetically rendered and sometimes whimsical narrative evocations of the American South in the early twentieth century. Drawing upon the richness of small town and country life, Cloar's work depicts, in his own words, "American faces, timeless dress and timeless customs… the last of an old America that isn't long for this earth." For the source of these images, the artist turned inwards, to long preserved memories of his childhood, fantastical stories and family lore, as well as creative visions that he cultivated in his adolescent imagination. These were his own personal mythologies. Though he spent much of his adulthood traveling cross-country, as well as throughout Europe and Mexico, Cloar remained rooted in his southern identity and throughout his career continually returned to the land of his upbringing as the subject of his work. As the artist himself once wrote, "there is joy in the sense of belonging, of possessing and being possessed, by the land where you were born. There is
mixed emotion of remembering: places altered, people long passed."
With its lush, flower-studded fields, abundant green foliage and classic white clapboard house, Big House in Big Flat presents a idyllic and timeless scene of family life in the old American South. Its delicately stippled brushstrokes and dazzling colors create a dream-like effect, evoking a sense of nostalgia for a time long past.
Sale price
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
