Brooks Home School Program
The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South
Carroll Cloar, American, 1913-1993, My Father Was Big as a Tree, 1955,
Casein tempera on Masonite, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Gift of
Mr. and Mrs. Morrie A. Moss 55.24,©Estate of Carroll Cloar
Introduction and Biography:
Carroll Cloar’s art combines elements of Realism, Regionalism, Magic Realism, and others to create
evocative paintings of the Delta region, all with an underlying sense of magic and mystery. Cloar
considered himself a Realist, but he borrowed from a variety of different approaches to painting, making
it hard to define his work as part of a single artistic style or movement. While American Realists typically
attempted to capture the reality of daily life, Cloar based much of his work on photographs and
memories, rather than direct observation of nature. His stylized trees, stiff figures, shallow picture
planes, and sometimes bizarre subject matter reflect his interest in a variety of artistic styles, including
Surrealism, Magic Realism, Regionalism, and Pointillism. In The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and
the American South, over 75 of these works are on view, illustrating Carroll Cloar’s interest in the region,
his own childhood memories, and family stories all filtered through a lens of magic and mystery.
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James Carroll Cloar (1913-1993) was born on his parent’s cotton farm in Gibson Bayou, Arkansas. His
childhood memories of this small Delta community formed the basis for much of his later work. Cloar
was fascinated by both art and literature. In 1930 he enrolled at the Memphis Academy of Art (now
Memphis College of Art), but soon left to study English at Southwestern (now Rhodes College). After a
trip to Europe, Cloar eventually settled in New York City where enrolled at the Art Students League.
While in New York, Cloar produced a group of lithographs based upon his childhood. These works won
him a prestigious MacDowell Fellowship, allowing the artist to travel throughout the Western United
States and Mexico. During the Second World War, Cloar served in the US Army Air Corps and painted
images of pin-up girls on fighter planes. He returned to New York after the war ended and continued to
create art.
Cloar was “discovered” by the New York art world in the 1950s, and soon after major collectors began
buying his work – entranced by his unique, immediately recognizable style. In 1955 Cloar decided to
return to Memphis. Although he continued to work with New York dealers for years, increasingly his
artistic focus and clientele shifted to the mid-South. Cloar enjoyed a long, successful career in Memphis,
producing over 800 paintings until his death in 1993.
Vocabulary
Arkansas Delta: in Arkansas, a geographical region, running along the eastern border of the state next to
the Mississippi River and extending as far west as Little Rock.
Magic Realism: art that is based in reality, but that has elements of fantasy and magic. Magic realist art
is often typified by fine detail, intense colors, sharp focus, and flattened or distorted perspective. Unlike
surrealism, magic realism does not attempt to invent a new reality, instead it recombines familiar
elements from our own world in strange ways to create images that are often wonderful and odd, but
still recognizable and believable.
Carroll Cloar, American, 1913-1993, Story Told by my Mother, 1955, Casein tempera
on Masonite, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Bequest of Mrs. C.M. Gooch,
80.3.16, ©Estate of Carroll Cloar
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Pointillism: an artistic movement growing out of French Impressionist movement, characterized by
small, often contrasting dots of pure color applied in patterns to form an image. Carroll Cloar used a kind
of pointillism - applying many different dots of color, to create his billowing, leafy trees.
Carroll Cloar, American, 1913-1993, The Bridge over the Bayou, 1974,
Acrylic on Masonite, Private Collection, ©Estate of Carroll Cloar
Realism: art that attempts to represent subject matter truthfully and realistically, without artificiality
and avoiding fantastic, idealized, or other implausible elements. American Realists, in particular, were
interested in recording the reality of daily life, both urban and rural.
Regionalism: popular during the 1930s, this American art movement focused on scenes of rural life and
the open countryside. The three major American regionalists, Grant Wood, Thomas hart Benton, and
John Stuart Curry each focused on their own geographic region: Grant in Iowa, Benton in Missouri, and
Curry in Kansas. Cloar focused on the Arkansas Delta.
Surrealism: a cultural and artistic movement of the 1920s, mainly in Europe, best known for strange,
unnerving images of the world of dreams and the subconscious. Cloar’s work, My Father Was Big as a
Tree (image on page 1) is an example of surrealism. While based on family photographs, Cloar distorted
scale and proportion to suggest physical and psychological distance and tension.
Pre-visit activities
Carroll Cloar grew up in our Mid-south region, and lived here most of his life. Many of his painting draw
upon his memories, family photos, newspaper clipping, and stories he had heard or imagined. These
pre-visit activities encourage you to think about the region that we live in and the world in which Caroll
Cloar grew up.
All ages:
1. Introduce and discuss any new vocabulary.
2. Think about the landscape of our region: What makes it special? What do you think is a typical
Delta landscape? What colors, shapes, or materials would you use to depict it?
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3. Look at a book of old photos or an old family photo album together. Do you know any stories
about the people in the photos? Imagine a new story to tell about a photo or a person in the
photo. What different kinds of stories can you tell?
Older:
1. Visit http://summerofcloar.com/enrichment/ and do some preliminary research on Carroll
Cloar. What about Cloar’s life or work interests you the most? Where could you find out more
about that interest? Create a preliminary bibliography of resources.
2. Choose a story from the reading list at http://summerofcloar.com/enrichment/ or at the end of
this guide. Read the story with a friend, a sibling or a parent. Talk about the reading. What did
you like best and what did you like the least about the story? Explain why. Could certain parts of
the story really have taken place? Why or why not?
Post-visit activities
Carroll Cloar told stories with his art, but he also wrote his own stories. These stories are now held in the
archives at the University of Memphis. Many combined the same magical and fantastical elements as
found in his art work. These post-visit activities are designed to inspire you to tell your own fantastical
stories and could be used as a starting point for creative writing and/or visual arts projects. Many of the
images are available for view online at http://summerofcloar.com/ and at http://brooksmuseum.org/ .
Younger:
1. Write a story about the creature you made on your visit to the Brooks. What kind of personality
does it have? What does it like to do? Try to stretch your imagination and use descriptive
language.
2. Write a scientific entry about your creature. Identify its family, genus, and species. What are
your creature’s physical characteristics and how does it use its senses? Talk about the diet,
environment, and social practices of your creature.
Older:
1. Many of the people in Cloar’s works seem to have gotten themselves in strange situations.
Imagine you write an advice column for the Gibson Bayou Monitor-Gazette and one of the
characters writes to you with a problem. Write your response to them. How would you suggest
they approach their situation? (For example: the children or parents in Hostile Butterflies or the
woman in Story Told by my Mother writes to you about the problem illustrated in the painting.
How would you respond?)
2. Choose a work from the exhibit and write a ‘Six Room Poem.’ Imagine the work of art to be the
“room.”
Instructions to write a ‘Six Room Poem:”
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1) Take a sheet of paper and divide it into 6 equal sections with pencil, pen or marker.
2) Each section becomes a ‘room.’ Answer the questions below by listing descriptive words
and phrases in each of the respective rooms. Remember to think about what you see,
hear, feel, smell, and taste in the painting? How does it feel to be in this place?
 Room 1: Things outside of the area where you are and your surroundings
 Room 2: The light when you look at the scene from above
 Room 3: Any sounds you hear
 Room 4: Questions you have about this place
 Room 5: Feelings you have about this place
 Room 6: Word, phrase, or sentence to sum up the scene
3) Use the words and phrases to create a free verse poem. You can rearrange rooms in any
order, or even eliminate rooms, words, or phrases.
4) An example (using The Bridge over the Bayou)
Autumn leaves crisp and dry
A bayou in yellow light
Birds call and respond
Where does the bridge lead
Wondering/wandering
At home in the swamp
Reading list:
This is a short list of related readings, and many of the other novels and short stories written by the
authors below would also be an interesting introduction to Cloar’s life, Southern and Gothic literature,
and to the exhibit.
Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory (1956)
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily (1930)
Carson McCullers, The Ballad of Sad Café (1951)
Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find (1953)
Katherine Ann Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (1930)
Eudora Welty, Why I live at the P.O. (1941)
Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology (1915)
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