Artist

Eddie Arning

born Germania, TX 1898-died McGregor, TX 1993
Also known as
  • Carl Wilhelm Edward Arning
Born
Germania, Texas, United States
Died
McGregor, Texas, United States
Active in
  • Austin County, Texas, United States
Biography

Arning, like many self-taught artists, used magazine advertisements and illustrations as models or inspiration for his work. Nonetheless his work is highly individual; the link with the original source is often difficult to discern. Most of the print sources for Arning's drawings have been saved. Institutionalized for most of his adult life, Arning was introduced to drawing in 1964 by a hospital worker who supplied him with materials. Arning's medium from 1964 to 1969 was Crayolas. In 1969, he switched to oil pastels, or "Cray-pas." Regardless of his media, Arning always worked in the same manner, covering the entire surface of the paper with dense strokes of color. He stopped drawing in 1974; a year after leaving his nursing home.

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990)

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.38.43R-V - SAAM-2016.38.43R-V_2 - 126225
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
July 1, 2022–March 26, 2023
Smithsonian American Art Museum
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and

Related Books

Cover for the catalogue "We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection"
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and her son Douglas O. Robson, and will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum July 1, 2022 through March 26, 2023.