[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 163 (Wednesday, October 16, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                     REMEMBERING E.A. CARMEAN, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 16, 2019

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to note the passing of art 
historian E.A. Carmean, Jr., who died Saturday in our nation's capital 
at age 74. Mr. Carmean was the founding curator of 20th century art at 
the National Gallery of Art in Washington from 1974 to 1984, working to 
open the I.M. Pei-designed East Building for its Modernist collection 
in 1978. During his tenure at the National Gallery of Art, he curated 
important exhibitions on Georges Braque and David Smith, and on 
individual works, such as Picasso's The Saltimbanques, in 1980. He also 
acquired important works for the national gallery, including Jackson 
Pollack's Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), and commissioned some of the 
last public works by such masters as Joan Miro, Henry Moore and 
Alexander Calder. In 1984, he was appointed director of the Modem Art 
Museum of Fort Worth and, from 1992 to 1997, led the Memphis Brooks 
Museum of Art.
  In Memphis during his tenure, the Brooks hosted exhibitions on the 
watercolors of John James Audubon, the Jewels of the Romanovs and 
medieval icons. Mr. Carmean left the Brooks to enter Memphis 
Theological Seminary and later joined the staff of St. George's 
Episcopal Church in Germantown, Tennessee, and was named Lay Canon for 
Art and Architecture by the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West 
Tennessee with a license to preach.
  Born in Springfield, Illinois, Mr. Carmean received a B.A. in Art 
History from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, and worked 
toward but did not complete an M.A. at the University of Illinois, 
while teaching. He was later given an honorary doctorate from 
MacMurray.
  After leaving the museum world, he continued to write about art and 
religion, often for The Wall Street Journal, which in September 
published his ``A Choice at the Final Minute,'' a meditation on the 
15th century Hieronymous Bosch alterpiece Death and the Miser. He also 
wrote the forward to Elvis: The Personal Archives, a selection of Elvis 
photographs that were part of an exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum in 
Pittsburgh, in 2005.
  I would like to extend my condolences to his wife, Kathryn Shelton 
Carmean, his daughter, Elizabeth Carmean Adams, and his two 
grandchildren, as well as members of the St. George's community in 
Germantown and his many friends and admirers. He led an inspired life

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