Chronology

Cunningham leaves school at 15. Already artistically inclined as a child, since a young age he was constantly drawing and creating sculptures.

Cunningham works in the advertising department of retailer David Jones. Here he meets industrial designer Gordon Andrews, who encourages him to get an artistic education and suggests he moves to London.

Cunningham decides to join the Central School of Design and starts to seriously plan his journey to London, obtaining a letter of reference for the local branch of David Jones.

Cunningham arrives to London at the start of the year, working his passage by waiting tables. He is interviewed by Jessie Collins at the Central School of Design, who gives him a place on the Design course.

Cunningham wins a TFL (Transport for London) competition for a poster design with two submissions titled ‘The Woods’. Later in the year, he meets his future wife Bobby Hillson, who is studying Fashion at Saint Martins, at a Christmas Dance.

Gordon Andrews arrives in the UK as a consultant for the Design Research Unit (headed by Sir Misha Black), in preparation for the Festival of Britain exhibition of Summer 1951. Andrews hires Cunningham, who is growing dissatisfied with the Central School course, as his assistant. Taking a year off, he collaborates on major exhibition designs.

In July 1951, he and Bobby get married and move to 57 Albert Bridge Road, SW 11.

Upon his return to the Central School of Design at the end of the year, Cunningham graduates with a dissertation on architecture.

Cunningham leaves Central and considers turning to painting. Abram Games, a poster designer and teacher at the Royal College of Art (RCA) with whom he worked on the Festival of Britain, encourages him to apply.

In September, he meets Rodrigo Moynihan, then the Head of Painting at the RCA, who accepts him on the course.

He studies under distinguished tutors (Roger de Grey, Carel Weight, Colin Hayes, John Minton and Robert Buhler among others), and works alongside talented artists such as Leon Kossoff, Jo Tilson, Frank Auerbach and David Methuen-Campbell.

Cunningham graduates in July with an ARCA First Class Diploma in Painting and is awarded a Travelling Scholarship and a Continuation Scholarship.

He travels to Spain over the summer, visiting the Prado in Madrid. The study of Spanish Old Masters greatly influences his style and visual interests.

Once back in London, he submits a painting to an exhibition of fine art at the Victoria and Albert Museum organised by students of the RCA. This work is variously referred to as Portrait of a Young Boy, Blue Boy or Lost Boy.

Cunningham continues his studies at the RCA and is awarded a maintenance grant by its principal Robin Darwin.

In January, he applies to a part-time lecturer position at the London College of Printing, which he holds for the next 40 years.

Cunningham exhibits his work at the Royal Academy and Beaux Art Gallery summer exhibitions.

Cunningham joins a London Group exhibition with his work Composition.

Cunningham joins a London Group exhibition with his work Landscape.

Cunningham joins a London Group exhibition with his work Still Life.

Around this time he moves out of his large Battersea studio into a smaller one at Redcliff Road, owned by his friend David Methuen-Campbell. From this moment onwards he starts reducing the scale of his works and stops working with oil paints.

Cunningham moves to 39 Cyril Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive, SW 11.

In February, he is asked by to apply to become a member of the London Group. Cunningham refuses, never explaining his reasons.

The Brazilian airline Varig Airlines purchases Cunningham’s painting Two Figures in Movement.

In March, Brazilian businessman and art patron Assis Chateaubriand organizes an exhibition of 30 young British painters, including a work by Cunningham. The works had been gathered by art collectors Hans and Elbeth Juda, who are his personal friends and admirers.

In December, a small selection of his paintings and drawings is exhibited at a Kensington High Street book shop.

The North West Art Trust, Northern Ireland, acquires Cunningham’s work Still Life.

At this point Cunningham decides to stop exhibiting his paintings. His focus turns to graphic design, creating primarily exhibition stands and book jackets with the publisher Peter Owens.

His designs are exhibited at Design for Designers, Reed House, London.

Cunningham’s work is included in an exhibition at Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art, Canada.

In November, Cunningham’s work is included in an exhibition of graphic design and related material at the London College of Printing.

Cunningham exhibits his designs at the 6th Biennale of Graphic Design, Brno, Czech Republic.

Cunningham joins the International Poster Exhibition in Kilkenny.

Cunningham exhibits his designs at the 9th Biennale of Graphic Design, Brno, Czech Republic.

Letters between Canadian auctioneer and collector Franklin Silverstone, and ‘Ann’ in Montreal suggest an exhibition is being planned. It is unclear if plans ever came to fruition.

Magazine ‘Design Week’ publishes a profile on Keith Cunningham, including an extensive interview by designer Mike Dempsey.

A number of Cunningham’s book jackets designed for Peter Owen are featured in a design exhibition at the Barbican Centre, titled Communicate! Independent British Graphic Design Since the Sixties.

Cunningham writes an essay about his artistic inspirations for ‘Very’ magazine. In the article, he discusses the artists he has seen at the Louvre, the Prado and London’s National Gallery and how they influenced his art.

Cunningham dies at the age of 85.

Cunningham’s widow Bobby Hillson and curator Stephen Rothholtz organise the exhibition Keith Cunningham: Unseen Paintings 1954-1960 at Hoxton Gallery in London. With an catalogue essay written by Mike Dempsey, the exhibition runs from 30th September to 13th October and receives significant media attention.

Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery opens The Cloud of Witness, an exhibition of Cunningham’s paintings running from 16th February to 21st August.

HENI Publishing releases Keith Cunningham: Paintings, featuring full colour reproductions of paintings and drawings created between 1952 and 1966.