Date Span:
1945-1953

Size:
0.5 cubic feet

Number of Boxes:
2 1/2 Letter Doc Boxes

Biographical Sketch:
Carlos Alpha Moon, of Florala, Alabama, was a prominent Alabama artist of the 1940s and 1950s. Moon was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1906, although his his family moved to Andalusia, Alabama while Carlos was a child. Moon attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1927-1928. His emergence as an artist did not occur until his introduction to the Dixie Art Colony and the tutelage of its mentor, Kelly Fitzpatrick, in 1944. Moon applied himself to the use of oils, a medium he used almost exclusively until 1946, the year of his first one-man show at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. During an extended working trip to the Carolinas with Fitzpatrick, Moon changed his medium of choice to watercolor. "Shiney" further developed his watercolor technique painting in and around New Orleans, in the bayous and on the barrier islands of the Gulf. With Fitzpatrick and water colorist Genevieve Southerland as co-instructors, Moon helped found the Bayou Art Colony in Bayou la Batre, Alabama. Continuing to hone his watercolor skills, Shiny painted extensively at the coast and studied with Morris Davidson at Provincetown, Massachusetts. Moon's work was exhibited throughout the eastern United States, in numerous one-man shows, in galleries, museums and in art association competitions. His prizes and awards include: Alabama Art League, First Prize, 1947; Watercolor Society of Alabama, Second Place, 1947; Alabama Art League, Burton Award, 1950; Mobile Watercolor Society, Art Center Award, 1951; Alabama Art League, Loveman, Joseph and Loeb Purchase Prize, 1951 and Watercolor Society of Alabama, Mobile Art Center Award, 1953. Moon served as president of the Watercolor Society of Alabama and as vice-president of the Alabama Art League. Moon died in 1953.

Scope / Content:
This Record Group documents aspects of the life and career of Alabama artist Carlos Alpha "Shiney" Moon, between 1945 and 1953. Includes correspondence to Moon from other memebrs of the Alabama Gulf Coast art colony, brochures and programs on Alabama art museums and associations and two prints from a Moon linoleum or woodcut.

Accession no.: 01-040
Box 1

Folder #1 - Correspondence: w/ Kelly Fitzpatrick, 1945-1953

October 12, 1945 Postcard, October, 23, 1945 September 18, 1945 April 23, 1947 July 18, 1947 Postcard, June 26, 1948 August 26, 1948 September 15, 1948 September 22, 1948 November 12, 1948 December 8, 1948 Postcard, March 22, 1949 Postcard, June 30,1949 August 29, 1949 October 3, 1949

Postcard, June 8, 1950 June 8, 1950 June 12, 1050 June 13, 1950 July 6, 1950 July 25, 1950 October 2, 1950 December 5, 1950 August 21, 1951 September 11, 1952 April 13, 1953

Folder #2 - Correspondence: w/ Walter Keith, 1945-46
September 25, 1945
June 17, 1946
November 25, 1946

Folder #3 - Correspondence: w/ Genevieve Southerland, 1945-1953
May 17, 1946
July 1, 1946
October 4, 1946
November 26, 1946
February 11, 1947
February 18, 1947
March 18, 1947
October 3, 1947
April 26, 1953

Folder #4 - Correspondence: Miscellaneous, 1945-1953
January 12, 1940
July 17, 1945
March 21, 1946
August 9, 1946
December 22, 1948
January 2, 1949
January 10, 1953
May 12, 1953
May 15, 1953
May 18, 1953
July 21, 1953

Folder #5 - Prints (2) from woodcut or linoleum media [untitled, N. D.]

Folder #6 - Alabama Artist, vol. 2, no. 4 (March/April, 1953) article on "Shiny" Moon, pages 4-5, 8.

Folder #7 - Programs from the Alabama Art League Jury Exhibitions, 1949-1951
Twentieth Annual Jury Exhibition [1949]
Twenty-First Annual Jury Exhibition, November 5-November 30, 1950
Twenty-Second Annual Jury Exhibition, November 4-December 2, 1951 Folder #8 - Brochures:
"Art in Alabama, the Story of the Alabama Art League" (6)
Alabama Art League, Spring Bulletin

Folder #9 - Brochures: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Oil Painting Exhibition, 1946 (4), 1947 (1)

Folder #10 - Brochures: Coden Art Colony, Miscellaneous
Coden and Bayou La Batre, "Gulf Painting at Its Best", August 12^th-20^th, 1950
Water Color Society of Alabama, January 2-31, 1953
Southern States Art League, February, 1945

Accession no.: 97-124
Box 1

1. Correspondence: Kelly Fitzpatrick, 1945-1953
2. Correspondence: Walter Keith, 1945-46
3. Correspondence: Genevieve Southerland, 1945-1953
4. Correspondence: Miscellaneous, 1945-1953
5. Prints from woodcut or linoleum media [untitled, N.D.]
6. Alabama Artist, vol.2, no.4 (March/April, 1953) article on "Shiny" Moon, pages 4-5, 8.
7. Programs from the Alabama Art League Jury Exhibitions, 1949-1951
8. Brochures: "Art in Alabama, the Story of the Alabama Art League"
9. Brochures: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Oil Painting Exhibition, 1946, 1947
10. Brochures: Coden Art Colony, miscellaneous

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