Earl Kerkam (American, 1891-1965), Still Life with Flowers

Oil on board, 1942, signed twice at lower right, retains gallery label to verso, presented in a gilt frame.

Board 15 1/2 x 12 in.; Frame dimensions 22 x 18 in.

From the Collection of the late Robert and Judith Weston, Detroit, Michigan

Donald Morris Gallery, Inc., Birmingham, Michigan

Earl Kerkam was an American modernist painter known for his still lifes, figures, and portraits. Born in Washington, D.C., he studied at the Rand School and the Art Students League in New York before traveling to Paris, where he studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and ran the American Art Gallery, exhibiting work with the Fauves. In the early 1920s, he designed movie posters for Warner Brothers before committing fully to painting. By 1935, Kerkam returned to America and joined the Easel Project of the WPA, where he met Arshile Gorky, Milton Avery, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock.

Kerkam was committed to a modern, expressionist aesthetic inspired by Paul Cezanne and the Cubists while maintaining recognizable subject matter, often painting self-portraits. He was highly respected by the Abstract Expressionists, with de Kooning and Pollock considering him a key figure, though Kerkam remained true to the intimate quality of painting practiced by Bonnard and Vuillard. His paintings were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art organized a memorial exhibition after his death. He taught briefly at the New York Studio School before his death in 1965. His work is held in collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Some minor rubbing and chipping to frame.