MINNIE EVANS (1892-1987)
MINNIE EVANS (1892-1987)
MINNIE EVANS (1892-1987)
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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE SOUTHERN COLLECTION
MINNIE EVANS (1892-1987)

Untitled, 1963

Details
MINNIE EVANS (1892-1987)
Untitled, 1963
dated and signed 'Minnie Eva_June 15_' lower right; signed 'Minnie Evans, 1963 Art Modern Art' on reverse
oil and gold paints, ink on paper
14 ½ x 20 in.
Provenance
Luise Ross Gallery, New York
Literature
Chuck Rosenak and Jan Rosenak, Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists (Abbeville Press, 1990), p. 115.
Barbara A. MacAdam, "Vasari Diary," ArtNews March 1990, p. 34.
Mary E. Lyons, Painting Dreams: Minnie Evans, Visionary Artist (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996), p. 36.
Exhibited
Hempstead, New York, African American Museum of Nassau County, Bill Traylor and Minnie Evans, 24 May - 17 September 1989.
Wichita, Kansas, Wichita Art Museum, Visionary Artists: Bill Traylor and Minnie Evans, 12 January - 1 March 1992.
Baltimore, American Visionary Art Museum, Tree of Life, 11 November 1995 - 2 September 1996.

Brought to you by

Cara Zimmerman
Cara Zimmerman Head of Americana and Outsider Art

Lot Essay

A devout Christian and longtime gatekeeper at the formal Airlie Gardens in North Carolina, Evans' deep rooted spirituality and love of nature are entwined throughout her oeuvre. Completing her first drawings on Good Friday in 1935, Evans went on to create increasingly complex paintings depicting the faces of ancestral spirits and angels amidst verdant plants and animals, showing the presence of God on both physical and otherworldly planes. Her artistic process, much like her depictions, was imbued with spirituality. She famously noted, “I have no imagination. I never plan a drawing, they just happen. In a dream it was shown to me what I have to do, of paintings.”

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