Frank E. Cummings III
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Frank E. Cummings III (born 1938[1]: 61 ) is an artist and professor of fine arts at California State University, Fullerton.[2] Cummings makes wood vessels and furniture using precious materials, inspired by spiritual meanings of objects in Africa.[3]
Cummings was born in Los Angeles, California in 1938. He received his Master of Arts from California State University, Fullerton in 1971.[2] In 1973, Cummings received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to spend two months in Ghana exploring similarities between the identity struggles of African Americans and struggles faced in Africa.[1] In 1981, he returned to Africa, exhibiting his work in Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, and Malawi.[2]
Work
Cummings' first solo museum exhibition, Sensitivity, was at the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1974.[1]: 109 His work is still exhibited at the museum.[4]
The Lipton Collection contains wooden vessels made by Cummings.[1] The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[3] Minneapolis Institute of Art,[5] and Smithsonian American Art Museum[6] have pieces by Cummings in their collections. His work has been shown in the White House Collection of American Craft.[7]