Keith Cunningham’s anatomical artworks evolved from preparatory sketched into compelling studies of form, structure and human vulnerability. Traditionally, artists study human or animal anatomy in order to understand how to render muscle and skin, and how to convey movement into a composition. This centuries-old process remains a staple of artistic education today, when anatomical images have become artistic subject matters in their own right. Produced mostly during his early training as an artist in the 1950s, these works demonstrate Cunningham’s long-term interest in the body not as a literal subject but as a a site in which flesh and memory converge.

In these drawings, bones, muscles and joints are suggested through shifting lines, fractured shapes and layered marks. The forms, at times barely sketched, can hover between recognition and dissolution, allowing viewers to encounter the body as both presence and absence. In this way, Cunningham moves into a fully emotional space, using anatomy as a starting point for deeper reflection on the relationship between inner and outer worlds.