Memphis painter Carl Moore gives people ‘something to talk about’
“That weight of the virus and George Floyd, I think for any artist becomes very heavy.” Carl Moore Memphis artist
Memphis artist Carl Moore’s “American Gothic” series of paintings borrows its name from Grant Wood’s famous 1930 portrait of a grim-faced white man and woman posed in front of an Iowa farmhouse, the man grasping a trident pitchfork that seems as much a defensive weapon as an agricultural tool.
The inhabitants of Moore’s “Gothic” canvases inhabit a similarly beleaguered — Wood’s painting was completed during the Great Depression — but very different America.
Most of them are Black, like the artist, and they wear coronavirus-inhibiting surgical-style masks, stand knee-deep in flood waters, brandish hand-held infrared thermometers, or lift their fists in pride. Meanwhile, a white man wears a red cap; his back is turned, but it’s understood that the front view would reveal the words “Make America Great Again.”
In contrast to the painstaking realism of Wood, the style is bold and flat, as in a comic strip or propaganda poster. The people and objects in the paintings are haloed with thick, brightly colored borders. The frames are square, like the television screens and Polaroid snapshots that dispensed documentary content during Moore’s youth.
“I think artists are somewhat historians,” explained Moore, 54, current artist-in-residence at Crosstown Arts. “I am an artist, I am a historian.”
As such, it’s logical that images that evoke what Moore labels “media-based events” — the coronavirus outbreak, Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and so on — find their way into Moore’s art.
“The coronavirus became part of our daily life,” he said. “And then just as there’s some understanding or acceptance of that new reality, George Floyd took place . ...
“It heightened what I’d already been working on, but it took it to another level. That weight of the virus and George Floyd, I think for any artist becomes very heavy.”
In a normal year, Moore would be one of about a dozen local and out-of-town artists-inresidence at Crosstown Concourse right now, taking advantage of a 3-year-old Crosstown Arts program that provides painters, photographers, musicians and other creative types with free private studio space; access to a shared “art-making” facility; two free meals a day from Crosstown restaurants; and even (if needed) a free apartment to live in.
2020 is hardly a normal year, however, so the summer residencies have been postponed. The shutdown didn’t affect Moore, however, who already was deep into creating art at Crosstown as the recipient of the arts group’s annual 11month residency. (Most of the other residencies end at three months.)
Typically, about a third of the artists selected for the program are local, so they can live at home, if they want (as Moore does). The purpose of bringing the out-of-town artists is to expose them to Memphis art, in the hope that they, in turn, will help expose Memphis art to the world.
“Memphis has been sort of isolated, at least in terms of visual artwork, so it is an opportunity for people to come here and see what we’re doing,” said artist Mary Jo Karimnia, manager of the residency program.
“If we want to have a presence in the world art scene, we have to be involved in it, and this is a real, concrete way to do that.”
Meanwhile, the residency — largely funded with grants and endowment money — helps to rejuvenate the artists.
“We really want to give people time and space to work,” Karimnia said. “We don’t require them to have specific projects, we don’t require them to have a show . ... It’s concentrated time to focus on your work, and that’s something that is really valuable to creative people.”
A handsome if somewhat avuncular figure, with dark-rimmed glasses and a goatee
sprinkled with gray hair that lends its wearer a professorial gravitas, Moore grew up in Canton, Mississippi, where his father — now 91 — still lives.
Moore’s older siblings all studied art at various times and would bring home copies of serious art magazines, which exposed young Carl to cutting-edge trends in the art world, which augmented the visual education he already was receiving from Marvel comic books.
He had a lot of time to soak in the art. Battling kidney disease, “I was in and out of the hospital for probably the first 10 years of my life,” Moore said.
As a result, he spent much of his time indoors, immersing himself in art, isolated from his peers who played outside.
Moore studied at the Memphis College of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago before settling down in Memphis as a husband, father (his daughter, Candice, is 26) and longtime graphic designer for WREG-TV Channel 3 (a job that provides the income that enables him to pursue his art).
Over the years, his style evolved from painstaking realism (he originally painted in oils) to what might be described paradoxically as painstaking urgency (he currently paints in acrylic and acrylic gouache).
Although the people and objects in his paintings are reproduced with an almost cartoon-like simplicity, Moore may spend months, even years, researching, sketching and contemplating certain subjects and ideas before committing them to canvas.
“I sketched Rodney King right after that happened,” said Moore, referring to the filmed beating of King by Los Angeles police officers that caused a national outcry in 1991. “But I didn’t actually paint it until 10 years later.” While Moore was working on the painting, King died, a victim of drowning in his own swimming pool.
One of Moore’s recent “American Gothic” pieces depicts the 2014 police killing of Eric Garner. The disturbing image is stylized but accurate, based on screenshots he captured on his TV. “I want to do it justice,” Moore said. “I don’t want to sensationalize it.”
Not all his work is confrontational, however. For example, he created the so-called “fine arts poster” for this year’s Memphis in May International Festival, honoring Ghana, which was unveiled in February. The exposure that likely would have accompanied this project, however, was reduced greatly when the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of the festival.
In a “statement” on his website (carlemoore.com), Moore puts his artistic style and strategies into words:
“The work I’ve created over the last few years has dealt with identity and color,” he writes. “I consider my work to be a form of visual communication using simplicity and depth to express social and ethical issues. My goal is to create a conversation between both the personal and public by using color and composition to express mood, situation and ideas.“
Said Moore of his art: “It’s all dealing with how we live.”
In the early part of Moore’s Crosstown residency, Moore and the other artists spent quite a bit of time visiting each other’s studios, swapping ideas and sharing techniques. “It’s normally a very social residency,” complete with group meals and “field trips” to interesting Memphis locations, Karimnia said.
For the past few months, however, Moore has been to some extent on his own: Not only are the other artists gone, but so are most of the visitors who once crowded Crosstown’s restaurants, coffee shops and bars. So when he works in his studio — which doubles as an artist’s version of a “man cave,” in the words of his wife, Christine — he’s pretty much undisturbed, although the sunshine that streams in from the large east-facing windows for much of the day is an antidote to gloom.
Even surrounded by images of protest and pandemic, “You work in silence and peace,” Moore said.
Meanwhile, the “social dialogue” that occurs between painter, painter’s audience and the world at large continues.
“As you get older and time passes, the dialogue gets deeper,” Moore said.
“I’m always about making a statement. I want to give them something to talk about.”
Applications for all 2021 Crosstown artists-in-residence slots are being accepted through Sept. 15. To apply or find more information, visit crosstownarts.org/residency/about.