A PAINTER’S VIEW
"The Color of Life Is Unnameable" is a Jon Peters video that captures FC's distinctive way of looking at the natural world as "shapes of color." Filmed in 2018 at the Barn Studio in Sheffield, Massachusetts. (This is an excerpt.)
JEFF BURKE POSES
FC working with model, Jeff Burke, on the pose for Adam. The model's approach to gesture, motion, states of tension and weight placement determines the painting's emotional and narrative key and directly relates to Cunningham's objective. Together they developed the pose almost as a dance, which became typical of Cunningham's practice with figure painting. Video edited by Harrison Gish; originally shot by Will, 1985.
Theatre, Dance and Anthropology 1984
Richard Schechner, pioneer of performance studies at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, lectures informally to the Palenville Interarts members, including FC (in a khaki shirt and pants), seated at the center. Schechner's theory—that gesture embodies an idea and that "an idea embodied is the spirit of that particular world"—influenced FC's view that painting life-size figures is a form of performance. Video edited by Harrison Gish. Videographer unknown; 1984. Property of the Bond Street Theatre.