The Belle Époque Today: The Art of Frederick Cuming, RA

The Wave, Golden Cap, Dorset
Fred Cuming, RA

A member of the Royal Academy since 1969, Fred Cuming first began studying art in 1945. His first group exhibition came in 1953, with his first solo showing in 1978. Since the, Fred Cuming has been the focus of major exhibitions in both the United Kingdom and the U.S.


Cuming’s work is intelligently abstracted. He says of his paintings:

I am not interested in pure representation. My work is about responses to the moods and atmospheres generated by landscape, still life or interior. I am interested in the developments of 20th-century painting in abstraction...and in new ideas and art forms. My philosophy is that the more I work the more I discover. Drawing is essential as a tool of discovery; skill and mastery of technique are also essential, but only as a vocabulary and a means towards an idea. I struggle to keep an open mind.

Take his painting of “The Wave, Golden Cap, Dorset,” (above) for example. While the work is by no means literal, it is an instantly recognizable subject. Cuming has a way of exposing the bones of his compositions, and thereby, recreating them with a life all of their own. By laying bare the elements of each scene, Cuming imbues each canvas with an unmistakable natural essence.

Even interiors and still lifes such as 1995's floral still life of Spring (left) have an overall ethereal effect which instead of abstracting the composition only serves to make it seem more realistic.

To learn more about Mr. Cuming's lovely work, visit his Web site.