1960s Painter Who Gave Up on the London Art World Finally Exhibiting 50 Years Later

Keith Cunningham’s career on canvas was bizarre even by the eccentricities of London’s art world but now he is finally being given his due with a retrospective exhibition later this month.

Australian-born Cunningham studied at Central St Martin’s in the early 1950s with artists including Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff after traveling to London from Sydney by ship and arriving unannounced at the renowned art school armed only with his portfolio.

Cunningham (pictured above with his wife Bobby Hillson) was one of the brightest stars in the mid-20th century artistic firmament with his expressionistic paintings of human and animal skulls, sheep heads and hanging birds exhibiting at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and his work being snapped up by leading collectors who admired his Rembrandt-influenced pictures.

He was heralded by The Times and exhibited two years in succession at the prestigious London Group show.

On graduating from Central St Martins in 1952, Keith was left feeling unfulfilled and yearned for a deeper creative education. He was offered a place at the Royal College of Art along with a bursary and, at the suggestion of tutor Abram Games, he went to see Rodrigo Moynihan, then the head of painting. Moynihan offered him a place on the fine art course. Here, Keith worked alongside fellow students and new friends Joe Tilson, Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff and David Methuen-Campbell. At last, his heart and mind were fully engaged. He worked furiously in the heady atmosphere of creativity at the RCA. The results impressed a clutch of Royal Academicians, including Sir Roger de Grey, Carel Weight and John Minton, with the latter stating that Keith Cunningham was “one of the most gifted painters to have been at the Royal College” ////// opening September 30th at Hoxton Gallery ////// see link in bio for more info #keithcunningham #hoxtongallery #lostart #royalcollegeofart #joetilson #frankauerbach #leonkossoff #johnminton #RCA

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Yet in the late 1960s Cunningham declined further invitations to exhibit, instead plying his trade as a graphic designer and lecturer. He died in 2014.

Stephen Rothholz, who co-curated Unseen Paintings, the exhibition of Cunningham’s work which will be on at the Hoxton Gallery later this month,  said: “The great question for me is why, when he appeared to have the world at his feet, when he was being courted by gallerists and acquired by museums and collectors, did he step out of the limelight? Only he could answer that question.”

The lost paintings of graphic designer Keith Cunningham https://t.co/LrDc3OPrlE pic.twitter.com/l2hd2sWKE8

— Cooee Design (@CooeeDesign) September 5, 2016

Writer Mike Dempsey, who knew Cunningham, said the seclusion lay in the fact he was inherently secretive: “Keith Cunningham was an eternally guarded and secretive man: a man who had carefully balanced his life…he made art so deeply personal that he found it difficult to share it with others, even with his wife, for fear that it may lose something- it’s integrity perhaps?”

Keith Cunningham: Unseen Paintings runs September 30- October 2013 2016 at Hoxton Gallery, London EC1V

' … I was very interested in him and had a respect for his outstanding talent. ' FRANK AUERBACH ON KEITH CUNNINGHAM, AUGUST 2016 #artcollector #hoxtongallery #frankauerbach #lostart #art #londonpainters #friezeartfair

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