Carroll Cloar was born on January 18, 1913, outside Earle, Arkansas. One of four children raised on a cotton farm, Cloar was not particularly close to either of his parents. He was fearful of his father, who he would later paint as a large and intimidating man. Cloar’s mother told wild stories that would go on to influence his painting. Cloar went to high school in Earle, Arkansas, and won an art award from the James Lee Art Academy in Memphis that inspired him to pursue an art career.
In 1930, Cloar moved to Memphis to study English and Spanish at Southwestern University, and art at James Lee Art Academy. Cloar was uninterested with his studies, dropping both English and his art classes. After graduating with a degree in Spanish, he moved to New York in the hopes of becoming a cartoonist. He was unsuccessful finding steady work as an artist in the city but learned about painting at the Art Students League and discovered a talent for lithography. Following another move, this time to Mexico, Cloar began making nostalgic prints depicting his childhood in Arkansas. The Second World War temporarily interrupted his work (though he painted figures on bomber airplanes). After the war he signed with his first gallery.
In 1948, Life magazine published several of his autobiographical lithographic images titled “Backwoods Boyhood.” The article was Cloar’s first major recognition and spurred him to focus on depictions of his rural upbringing. Having moved back to Memphis in 1955, Cloar painted scenes, often in casein tempera and acrylic, inspired by memories, photographs, newspapers, memorabilia and American folklore, situated in dreamlike Southern landscapes. His career gained national acclaim, with works included in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Brooks Museum of Art, and Library of Congress. In 1993, Cloar’s painting Faculty and Honor Students, Lewis Schoolhouse was one of six paintings by American artists selected to commemorate the inauguration of President Clinton.
EDUCATION
Memphis College of Art, Memphis
Art Students League, New York
Rhodes College, Memphis
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Carroll Cloar: The Flowers We Gathered, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2023
stories on paper, David Lusk Gallery, Nashville
2014
The Lithographs of Carroll Cloar, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
2013
Southern Raconteur, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, traveling to Georgia Museum of Art, Athens and Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock
In His Studio: Carroll Cloar, University of Memphis Art Museum, Memphis
Crossing Place, The Carroll Cloar Drawing Collection, Christian Brothers University, Memphis
Carroll Cloar: Native Son, Crittenden County Collective, Mid-South Community College, West Memphis, AR
Early and Rare: Selections from the Carroll & Pat Cloar Collection, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN
2012
Carroll Cloar Returns to Belmont University, Nashville, TN
2011
a rare group of previously unexhibited casein tempera paintings, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
2010
Family History: Paintings and Works on paper 1939-1959, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
2007
David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
2005
The Collector’s Cloar, Pine Bluff -The Arts & Science Center, Pine Bluff, AR
Recollection, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
2003
carroll cloar: notable drawings from the 60’s, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
2002
Dreams and Scenes: A Collection of Paintings, Drawings and Lithographs, Greenville Arts Council, Greenville, MS
2001
Carroll Cloar: Beginning Points Revisited, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR
Crossroads: The Drawings of Carroll Cloar, Christian Brothers University, Memphis
2000
Works from the Estate, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
1994
Kurts Bingham Gallery, Memphis
1993
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis 1991
1991
Retrospective, Memphis State University, Memphis
Kurts Bingham Gallery, Memphis
1989
Schmidt Bingham Gallery, New York
1988
Retrospective from Arkansas Collectors, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock
1987
Schmidt Bingham Gallery, New York
1983
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville
Forum Gallery, New York
1981
Forum Gallery, New York
1979
Forum Gallery, New York
1976
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis
1973
Carroll Cloar, Kennedy Galleries, New York
1972
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis
1968
State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY
Alan Gallery, New York
1967
M.H. DeYoung, Memorial Museum, San Francisco
1966
Alan Gallery, New York
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis
1963
Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth
1961
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock 1960
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Southern/Modern, organized by The Mint Museum, Traveling Exhibition, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN; Dixon Gallery, Memphis, TN 2022
Summer Stories, David Lusk Gallery, Nashville
2015
Summer Reading, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
Game Day, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis
2010
Art by Choice Auction, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
2006
Katrina Benefit, Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis
2004
Jackson Summer Art Salon, David Lusk Gallery, Jackson, MS
Work selected for participation in the US Art in the Embassies Program, on loan to the US Embassy in Damascus, Syria
2002
Art of the 20th Century, New York
A Century of Progress: Twentieth Century Painting in Tennessee, Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville 1992
Southern Genre, Kurts Bingham Gallery, Memphis
Selected Works 1935 - 1985, Kurts Bingham Gallery, Memphis 1991
Form, Fantasy, Function, Kurts Bingham Gallery, Memphis 1987
Collector’s Choice, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS 1983-84
Southern Artists, Traveling Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock
Art Museum of Sunrise, Charleston, WV
Brooklyn Museum of Fine Art, Brooklyn
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
Carroll Reese Museum, Johnson City, TN
Cheekwood Museum, Nashville
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC Library of Congress, Washington, DC Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL
Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Rockford Art Gallery, Rockford, IL
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, MA
State University of New York, Albany, NY
Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville Tennessee State Museum, Nashville Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Whitney Museum, New York
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA