In the essay for the book that accompanied the exhibit “Earl Cunningham’s America,” our senior curator, Virginia Mecklenburg, wrote an essay entitled “The Dragon of St. George Street.” She made reference to his store and gallery in St. Augustine, Florida. His gruff demeanor and unwillingness to accommodate those who asked to see his paintings gave him a reputation as difficult and antagonistic. Yet one woman, Marilyn Logsdon (later Marilyn Mennello), used classic feminine charm, gentle persistence, and genuine interest to tame this dragon. When she first happened on Cunningham in 1969 and inquired about his works, he gave her the same dismissive treatment he gave others, but she was undeterred. Marilyn Logsdon Mennello took seriously her responsibilities as a collector of an artist’s entire oeuvre. Knowing that Earl Cunningham’s future reputation rested on her efforts, she set out to tell the world — one person at a time, anyone who would listen — about this remarkable artist. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

She responded intuitively to his brightly colored memory paintings, and she recognized them as a unique response to the Atlantic coastal areas from Maine to Florida that he had explored over many years. She arranged for exhibitions of his work and displayed his paintings in her home, which became a gallery devoted to the artist. Years later, when she founded the Mennello Museum of American Folk Art in Orlando, Cunningham’s works were given pride of place there. Later the Mennellos expanded and renamed this handsome showcase the Mennello Museum of American Art so they could widen its scope, but Earl Cunningham remains a constant there, always available for visitors to discover.

Cunningham’s world is a refuge, almost a Garden of Eden where tropical trees and waterfowl flourish, native people live in open huts, and large ships glide through protected harbors. The brilliant, saturated blues and pinks and yellows of his palette suggest that memory had filtered out the dark tones of his life and art. Occasionally, though he painted a fierce storm, and these images hint at the threats and damage he experienced during many years that appear to have been mostly without security or stability. The figures that inhabit these landscapes are small, while nature is huge. Deep vistas, wide horizons, towering trees, and vast waterways literally dwarf the inhabitants of the scenes. We cannot know their hopes and disappointments, but only the mystery and beauty of the creation all around them. Nothing in Cunningham’s paintings suggests the kind of specific religious impulse that inspired so many other folk artists, but the vision in these paintings would be impossible without a profound immersion in the variety and abundance of nature.

Marilyn Logsdon Mennello was unusually intuitive and capable of truly “listening with the inner ear,” able to understand even what was not said. Though Cunningham’s distrust and suspicion were too advanced by the time she met him ever to be entirely set aside, she recognized that the vision in the paintings was even more fundamental and true. She saved his art for us to cherish, and she gave back to him an unshakable trust in his achievement. Both are exceptional gifts from a remarkable woman.

The exhibition and book were dedicated to Marilyn Logsdon Mennello, a woman of great vision and compassion. Though she did not live to see the completion of the project she inspired, her spirit was felt on every page and in each gallery where the paintings were hung. It could not have been accomplished without the extraordinary help of Michael Mennello, who consulted on every aspect, encouraged collectors to lend their best examples, and garnered support to make everything as fine as possible. All of us at the Smithsonian American Art Museum were deeply grateful to both of them, and to the many friends they brought into Cunningham’s world.

Elizabeth Broun
The Margaret and Terry Stent Director, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Edited by Frank Holt, Executive Director, The Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida

View PDF of the Marilyn Mennello memorial booklet

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