John McCrady (1911-1968)
An American regionalist painter, John McCrady was born in Canton, Mississippi. He found the South’s traditions, customs, and landscapes a never-ending source of inspiration. Raised in rural Louisiana and Mississippi, the South permeated his life and art.
McCrady articulated his thoughts about his paintings in the following passage: “I see in painting one way of expressing our age, the people and their surroundings, philosophy of life, the emotional reason for their being-as well as my own destiny to thus interpret the meaning of life, as I see it, to these people, who are my neighbors. Man has no world to paint but the one he is a part of, and so I see no sense in going elsewhere in search of new and interesting material. In Mississippi I was born, and in this section of the country I grew, developing my philosophy of life in these surroundings and with these people. So, naturally, it is the philosophy of these same people and their everyday life in which I am most interested.” McCrady’s work was exhibited in 1946 at a prestigious one-man show at the Associated American Artists Gallery in New York City.
Throughout his career as an artist, John McCrady maintained close ties with the Arts and Crafts Club of New Orleans. Instead of returning to the University of Mississippi in the fall of 1932, John McCrady enrolled at the Art and Crafts Club’s New Orleans Art School. The club and school were located in the middle of the French Quarter at 520 Royal Street. According to the inscription on “Mother Earth,” the painting was apparently completed at the New Orleans Art School. In this painting, McCrady places the stylized art deco figure of Mother Earth into the rolling hills and lush vegetation of his beloved rural Mississippi countryside. Based upon his talent and the quality of paintings he produced at the school, McCrady was selected as one of America’s first ten young artists and a received a one year scholarship to the Art Students’ League. In 1947, the Arts and Crafts Club organized a retrospective exhibition of John McCrady’s paintings, a fitting tribute to their former student who was now a nationally recognized artist.
In 1963 the well-established Southern American Regionalist painter began to experiment with his painting techniques. Instead of employing the multi-stage painting process he favored in the 1940s and 1950s, McCrady began using a carbon acrylic technique. Interestingly, this technique involves painting color glazes over a carbon drawing. According to his student Henry Casselli, “He was so fascinated with the technique itself that it got to be the reason for the painting. So, in a sense, it became very abstract.” McCrady described himself as an abstract realist. In response to the prevailing Abstract Expressionist movement of the day, McCrady felt thoughtful composition and design were the most important early components of a painting. From these components an artist chooses to venture into abstraction or realism.
Note courtesy of Neal Auction Company.