Bacon, Auerbach ... Keith Cunningham? Meet the nearly man of British painting

Praised by Frank Auerbach, Cunningham flared into life in the 1950s then sank from view. A new exhibition celebrates him, but is he really a lost genius?

The myth of the difficult outsider, whose rebel genius is misunderstood by the establishment, is one of art’s oldest and most compelling fables. In French, the word for such a troubled talent is maudit: cursed.

This romantic stereotype of the misunderstood artist whose work will only be truly appreciated by future generations is rooted in truth. Great artists really can exist outside the markets and establishments of their time. Heading through Hoxton, east London, in search of the latest lost and rediscovered genius of British art, I passed the William Blake pub. In British art, Blake is the definitive gifted outsider. Shunned in his lifetime by the Royal Academy, struggling to find any audience for his radical and ravishing artist’s books, he is now universally revered for his vision.

Related: Sitting for Frank Auerbach: 'It's rather like being at the dentist'

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