In 1926, Cash left interior decorating to enroll in art school.[4] He studied at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City from 1926 to 1928.[2][1] While there, he tried clay modeling to help break the bad habits he developed in drawing.[4] This led to him becoming a sculptor.[4] Cash said that modeling gave him "a feeling for form which I could not capture in painting".[4]
Career
Cash became a noted sculptor in Paris from 1928 to 1932.[2][4][1] One of his early works was a bust of Dr. Lyle B. West, completed in 1929.[3] He was also known for his sculptures of Black people.[3] Cash received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930 and 1931.[3][13][2] He used these grants to travel to Africa to seek more inspiration.[3]
In 1932, Cash returned to the United States from Paris, living in both Chattanooga and New York City.[4] He maintained a studio in Chattanooga but also established a studio in Greenwich Village, New York City, New York, facing Washington Square Park.[4][14] In 1933, he created a bust of Edgar Allan Poe for the Raven Society at the University of Virginia.[4][1] His work was shown at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.[15] In 1934, he was invited to participate in the New York City's first municipal art exhibit at Rockefeller Center.[16][14] His contributions to the show included busts and life-sized nudes in bronze, stone, concrete, and wood.[14]
Several of his sketchs are in the collection of the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, along with a full-body bronze sculpture called "D'A-LAL".[17][18] One of his sculptures, Head of a Woman, is in the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, England.[19] Another of his sculptures is owned by Washington and Lee University.[15] His other works include busts of his daughter Martha, Allen Tate, artist Catherine Richmond, Montgomery Caldwell, Malcolm Chisholm, Mary Emma Hershfield, John Stagmaire, Dr. Lyle B. West, and the Patton twins of Chattanooga.[5][20][4][14]Head of a Southern Negro was one of his noted works.[4]
Cash married Alma Dickinson in October 1919 in New York City.[8] She was the daughter of Col. L. T. Dickinson of Chattanooga.[8] They lived in Greenwich Village and had a daughter, Martha Anne.[4][10] In 1934, he lost custody of his daughter in their divorce because the judge disapproved of his career as an artist.[4][24][25] Circuit Court Judge Oscar Yarnell said the profession was "pure and unadulterated bunk".[25][15] His ex-wife had remarried and had moved to Oklahoma, leaving Martha with Cash's parents.[25]
Cash second wife was Elizabeth Law, the children's book editor for The New York Times.[5][26] They lived in New York City and spent their summers at the Old Cash Farm in Wildwood, Georgia, where his father had retired.[5][26] Wlldwood was later Cash's permanent residence.[5] He died in 1977.[17][19]
