The Painting center is pleased to host an exhibtion of paintings and works on paper by Earl Kerkam (1891-1965). The show will have a range of works that include still-lifes, portraits, self-portraits, heads and figure studies. This is the first Kerkam exhibition in New York since 1994.

Kerkam designed movie posters for Warner Brothers during the early 1920’s earning the extraordinary sum of over $20,000 annually. In a story that recalls Gauguin, Kerkam gave up financial security and his family and settled in Paris to study art at the Academie de la grande Chaumiere. In the early 1930’s Kerkam began to show in Paris and he was invited to participate in a two person show with Andre Derain, an admirer. Waldermar George, the French critic, wrote, “Kerkam eludes identification with any particular school, ancient or modern. His style is distinctly his own. He retains his artistic integrity.”

By 1935 Kerkam was back in America, moved to New York, and joined the Easel Project of the WPA. On the Easel Project he met Gorky, Avery, de Kooning, and Pollock, among others. He showed regularly in New York at several galleries including the Charles Egan Gallery. When he was evicted from his studio on 54th St., Franz Kline, a close friend, offered to share part of his studio with him. Elaine de Kooning wrote an article “Kerkam Paints a Picture” for Art News Magazine in 1950. In 1955 and 1956 he had shows at the Poindexter Gallery, where Al Held, Milton resnick, DeNiro, diebenkorn, Nell Blaine and Olitsky also showed.

In an often told story, Kerkam, in Paris during 1952, sent a postcard to Jackson Pollock on the occasion of Pollock’s first Parisian show. Pollock, back in New York was concerned about the show’s reception. Entering the Cedar Bar and waving the postcard, he was able to gleefully announce that “Earl says it’s not bad.”