Sunday, September 19, 2010

Churchill's paintings

When I was but a lad in Kansas City, I remember being taken to an art exhibit held in a local shopping mall. In many respects I remember the day perfectly. Indoor malls at the time were something of a novelty, and this, while certainly not the Burlington Arcade, was one of my favorite places.

On display were a series of paintings by the patron saint of salesmen, Sir Winston Churchill.

In the early days of television, the first family of KC, The Halls of Hallmark Card fame produced a television series, Hallmark Presents Sarah Churchill, hosted by Churchill's daughter. Over time, in gratitude for the kindness shown their daughter, Sir Winston presented the Hall family one of his paintings.

A friendship developed amongst the families and eventually Hall asked to reproduce several Churchill paintings as Christmas Cards, to which after an extended dance of the seven veils Churchill agreed.

In 1958, long before my time, 35 of his oils were displayed at the Nelson Adkins Museum of Art in KC. It was Sir Winston's first one man show. Eventually, the show toured the country.

From what I can gather the exhibit I saw in 1963 was a display of reproductions taken from the original show and those later used by Hallmark. It was still a pretty big deal.

Even local boy Harry Truman was there.

Toad

8 comments:

Shelley said...

I remember Grandma & Grandpa taking me to the new shopping mall near them. It was novel and amazing and practically a whole day out. It's good to try to keep that sense of awe, else everything could be terribly boring.

Suburban Princess said...

There were art shows in my teensy tiny little local mall when I was growing up - but nothing this exciting or impressive!

Martha said...

Yes, the Churchill/Hall friendship is legacy. When we were at Blenheim Palace (Where Churchill was born), they had a display of Hallmark cards by Churchill -- how great we thought that here in England was a little bit of KC!

Great post!

Unknown said...

wow...nice paintings you have..love it...keep it up..

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Unknown said...

great art of you.

Unknown said...

the color combination of the art is so fascinating.your talent in painting is a gift. hope to see your new creation. love it.
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crispin said...

I agree with adlai, you drawing is very fascinating. I also love to see your new post paintings in here.

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