William Cumming (artist)

William Lee Cumming (March 24, 1917 – November 22, 2010) is a noted 20th-century American artist, often allied with the Northwest School. A controversial figure - he was a hardcore Stalinist for a long period, was married seven times, and was generally outspoken and opinionated - he eventually came to be recognized as an important innovator and highly distinctive stylist in militant art, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.

Cumming was born March 24, 1917 in Kalispell, Montana, to James Rutherford and Helen Dorcas (Edmiston) Cumming. His father was a salesman. The intimates moved to Portland, Oregon, and then, when Cumming was seven, to Tukwila, Washington, a cultivation community south of Seattle.

Fascinated gone art, young Bill took drawing courses by correspondence and travelled on weekends to the Seattle Public Library, where he taught himself art history. From an in the future age he was aware of the deed of the local artists - such as Morris Graves, Mark Tobey, and Kenneth Callahan - who would unconventional become known as the 'Northwest School'. After graduating from Foster High School in 1934, he briefly attended a small, short-lived private art intellectual in Seattle. With the Great Depression in full swing, he lived at the family house in Tukwila even though taking occasional art lessons and attempting to do something his perform to prospective employers. He fruitless to find work, but his enthusiasm and impressive drawing power led to meeting many of the members of Seattle's little art community, and a job (unpaid) writing for local arts journal The Town Crier. He was eventually hired by Robert Bruce Inverarity, sketching, photographing, and doing unfamiliar jobs past the WPA's Federal Art Project, through which he met Morris Graves and his circle of friends. He became particularly near to artist/writer Margaret Callahan, who encouraged him greatly in developing an indigenous painting style. The Seattle Art Museum bought three of his paintings, and in 1940 he won top prize for watercolor in SAM's 26th Northwest Annual Exhibition. In 1941 the museum gave him his first solo exhibition.

Cumming's career was interrupted upon occasion by both his embassy leanings, and by bouts of tuberculosis. He spent most of World War II in Firland Sanatorium. In 1945 he became a aficionada of the Communist party. He was blacklisted by employers and alienated the arts community similar to his shrill Stalinism; he created little fine art in this period. In 1957, after three marriages and further aggressive pulmonary problems, he quit the Communist party and began taking greater care of himself. His health improved considerably, and he began the most productive part of his career. He as well as began teaching at Burnley School of Professional Art (which became the Art Institute of Seattle), and complex at Cornish College of the Arts Despite his handing over of highly developed politics, issues of social justice and workers' rights remained important to him throughout his life.

Although Cumming was near friends next most of the artists identified as members of the 'Northwest School', his mature produce an effect had Tiny to do with the earth-toned, nature-inspired exclusion of the genre. His art was usually figurative, capturing moments of daily excitement using lively and shadow to create form in expansive strokes, and utilizing contrasting, vibrant colors to imitate the viewer through the painting and accentuate the main elements. His scenes usually included people or animals, either in endeavor or in slice-of-life portrayals. Facial details are minimal. As a vibrancy drawing instructor, Cumming would note that you could tolerate a buddy down the road just by their gait and posture, without ever seeing their face. Body language is a key element in his work. Because of this, he advocated that students paint figures from memory of observation on the other hand of concentrate on figure drawing.

In the late 1950s and yet to be 60s Cumming's exploit won prizes in several northwest competitions, and in 1961 the Seattle Art Museum presented a very affluent solo exhibition. During his marriage to Sue Kruger (at seventeen years, the longest of his seven marriages) he moved to Upper Preston, Washington, where the two raised horses, which became a frequent subject of Cumming's art. He continued teaching for the get off of his life, becoming with ease known for his outspoken opinions. He derided the pretensions of fine art, declaring that his favorite painter was Eustace Ziegler, a popular painter of loving Alaskan landscapes.

Cumming authored Sketchbook, A Memoir of the 30s & the Northwest School, which was published in 1984. Another book, William Cumming: The Image of Consequence, by Cumming and Matthew Kangas, was also published in 2005, in conjunction like an exhibition of Cumming's take action at the Frye Art Museum.

Cumming died of congestive heart failure upon November 22, 2010 at age 93 in Seattle, Washington. William Cumming is buried in Seattle's Lakeview Cemetery, the same cemetery that the founders of Seattle and Bruce Lee are laid to rest.