The official companion to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibition of the same name, this beautifully illustrated volume presents Earl Cunningham (1893-1997) as a folk modernist who used the flat space and brilliant color typical of Matisse and Van Gogh to create sophisticated compositions. A creative, eccentric, and restless young man, Cunningham studied automobile mechanics and coastal navigation, earned a license as a harbor and river pilot, and worked on a schooner that carried cargo between Maine and Florida. In 1949, he moved to St. Augustine, Florida, and opened an antique shop and art gallery, which he dubbed Over Fork Gallery. There he displayed crockery, toleware, old photographs, magazines, and tools (all of which were for sale), and his own paintings, which were not.

In Earl Cunninghan's America, scholars trace the development of Cunningham's style through his career and explore his life, placing his work in the context of the folk art revival that brought Edward Hicks, Grandma Moses, and Horace Pippin to national attention.