Ben Cunningham

Benjamin Frazier Cunningham was born February 10, 1904, in Cripple Creek, Colorado and studied architecture at the University of Nevada, Reno. Intending to continue his studies at Berkeley in 1924, he instead enrolled at CSFA, switching from architecture to art. He worked briefly in the mines in Nevada before becoming an artist full time. After Coit Tower he did murals at Post Offices (including Ukiah), went to Paris in 1939 until WWII forced him to leave, then worked on more contemporary and modernist styles. He moved to New York in 1944, taught at Cooper Union, and took up color theory in his later work (favored by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who has a late Cunningham in her office.) He died in New York on April 5, 1975.

Works in Coit Tower:

Outdoor Life