Minnie Evans

Minnie Eva Evans (December 12, 1892 – December 16, 1987)[1][2] was an African American artist who worked in the United States from the 1940s to the 1980s.[1] Evans used different media in her work, but started with using wax and crayon.[1] She was inspired to start drawing due to visions and dreams that she had when she was a young girl.[1] She is known as a southern folk artist and as a surrealist and visionary artist as well.[1]

For the Potawatomi leader, see Minnie Evans (Potawatomi leader).
Minnie Evans
Born
Minnie Eva Jones

(1892-12-12)December 12, 1892
Long Creek, Pender County, North Carolina, United States
DiedDecember 16, 1987(1987-12-16) (aged 95)
Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.
NationalityAmerican

Personal life

Evans (born Minnie Eva Jones) was born to Ella Jones on December 12, 1892 in Long Creek, Pender County, North Carolina.[1][2] Ella was only thirteen years old at the time. Evans' biological father, George Moore, left after she was born. After Evans was only two months old, she and her mother moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to live with her maternal grandmother, Mary Croom Jones in 1893.[3] Minnie Jones attended school until the sixth grade and in 1903, Minnie Jones, Ella, and Mary Croom Jones moved to Wrightsville Sound which was a town close to Wilmington.[4] She attended St. Matthew African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.[1]

In Wrightsville, Ella Jones met her future husband, Joe Kelly, and they married in 1908.[3] During this time, Jones worked as a "sounder" selling shellfish door to door.[5] In 1908, one of Joe Kelly's daughter's from a previous marriage introduced Minnie Jones to Julius Caesar Evans.[3][2] Minnie Jones, who was sixteen at the time, married Julius (19) that same year.[4] The couple had three sons, Elisha Dyer, David Barnes Evans, and George Sheldon Evans.[4]

Beginning in 1916, Minnie Evans was employed as a domestic at the home of her husband's employer, Pembroke Jones, a wealthy industrialist.[4] The Evans family lived on Jones's hunting estate, "Pembroke Park," known today as the subdivision Landfall. Pembroke Jones died in 1919 and his wife, Sadie Jones remarried Henry Walters. The couple moved nearby to the Airlie Estate which was left to Sadie Jones from Pembroke Jones. Evans continued to work from Sadie Jones and now Henry Walters, on the Airlie Estate. After Walters died, Sadie Jones decided to turn the Airlie Estate into gardens which later became one of the most famous gardens of the south.[3] After Sadie Jones died, a man named Albert Corbet bought the property in 1947 and assigned Evans to be the gatekeeper and take admission from public visitors.[3] She held this position for the rest of her life.[3] She retired from her job as the gatekeeper when she was 82 years old in 1974.[3]

Career

Evans began drawing on Good Friday 1935, where she finished two drawings using pen and ink "dominated by concentric and semi-circles against a background of unidentifiable linear motifs".[6] She heard a voice in her head that said 'Why don't you draw or die?'[4] After this, Evans did not resume drawing until 1940.[4] She started using pencil and wax on paper for her beginning works and she later worked with oil paints and mixed media collages.[1] Her subject matter were usually either biblical scenes or scenes from nature. Her influences included African, Caribbean, East India, Chinese, and Western cultures.[1] Since she held the position as gatekeeper at the Airlie Gardens, she often used the gardens as her inspiration in her work to depict nature scenes.[1]

Evans first started selling her work at the Airlie Gardens by hanging her pieces on the front gate of the gardens. Those who would come and visit the Airlie Gardens began purchasing her work. Soon she became known throughout the south and visitors would come to the gardens just to see her work.[3] In 1961, she had her first formal exhibition of drawings and oils at the Little Artists Gallery (now St. Johns Museum) in Wilmington, North Carolina.[3][7]

In 1962, Evans met photographer, folk art specialist, and art historian, Nina Howell Starr.[8] Starr, an artist herself (photographer), knew of Evans' work in 1961 and wanted to meet the artist in person.[2] Starr would go on to represent Evans and publicize her work for the next 25 years. Evans originally sold her first paintings for 50 cents apiece. Starr, encouraged Evans to sell her paintings for better prices, and assisted Evans throughout her career. Evans felt her work was too personal to share with the public which held her from releasing anything until 1961, when she had her first major art exhibition at The Little Gallery in Wilmington, now known as St. John's Museum.

From 1962 until 1973, Starr recorded interviews with Evans about her work.[2] At first, Evans was wary to trust Starr with her work, but they gained a mutual respect for each other.[3] Starr helped to launch Evans' career by storing and selling her art in New York City. She also guided her in the art world by making her sign and date her pieces.[9] In 1966, Starr arranged for Evans' first New York exhibit at the Church of Epiphany and Clements Episcopal Church.[3] In August 1969, another exhibition of Evans' work took place at the Art Image Gallery of New York and in 1975, curated a major Evans exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.[3] With failing health, another exhibition of her work was curated in 1980 at the St. John's Museum.[3] She also had many other exhibitions in New York as well.[3]

Many art critics have labelled Evans work as "surrealistic", "visionary", and "psychedelic".[7] Religion played a vital role in Evans life, as well as in many of Evans paintings. Evans confessed she wasn't sure of the meanings behind her paintings, stating, "when I get through with them I have to look at them like everybody else. They are just as strange to me as they are to anybody else."[7]

Minnie Evans Bottle Chapel designed and built by Virginia Wright-Frierson

Evans created "one of the most powerful works of art "[10] which was a self-portrait on the cover of a scrapbook in 1981. Evans died in Wilmington, North Carolina on December 16, 1987 at age 95,[1] leaving more than 400 artworks to the St. Johns Museum of Art (now the Cameron Art Museum) in Wilmington. After Evans's death, artist Virginia Wright-Frierson designed and built the Minnie Evans Bottle Chapel at Airlie Gardens in her memory. "Minnie Evans" day was proclaimed on May 14, 1994 in Greenville, North Carolina.[3]

Evans was the subject of the documentary, The Angel that Stands By Me: Minnie Evans' Art (1983), by Allie Light and Irving Saraf.[11]

Famous works

Inspiration, style, and technique

Evans began to draw and paint at the age of 43, creating her first pieces of artwork on a scrap of paper bag. Five years later she decided to really dedicate herself to recording her dreams through art. She painted her early works on US Coast guard stationery and later worked with more precision, using ink, graphite, wax crayon, watercolour and oil on canvas, board and paper.[12]

Evans' drawings were inspired by her dreams and filled with many colors, possibly inspired by her work at Airlie Gardens. Her designs are complex, with elements recalling the art of China and the Caribbean combined with more Western themes. The central motif in many pieces is a human face surrounded by plant and animal forms. The eyes, which Evans equated with God's omniscience, are central to each figure, often three eyes were depicted and frontal faces with concealed lips. Symmetry was also a common theme in Evans' work[4] In addition, God is sometimes depicted with wings and a multicolored collar and halo and shown surrounded by all manner of creatures.

Works

Her first works, titled My Very First and My Second are ink on paper. The entire surface is filled with abstract designs and shapes with nature images and themes in both. These works are not in color.[13]

Another work titled "Design: Airlie Garden" depicts flowers, plants, and butterflies. The nature theme is shown here, but this piece is somewhat atypical due to the asymmetry of the painting.[3]

Two other works, both untitled are more typical works by Evans. One, dated 1996, depicts a woman with a feathered headdress and a green bird. This piece has bold colors, symmetrical, and includes nature themes. The media used is graphite, ink, tempera, and wax crayon on paper. The other is a female portrait including the theme of eyes, bold colors, and nature designs as well. The media used is gouache, ink and wax crayon on paper.[14]

Now recognized as one of the most important visionary folk artists of the 20th century, her work is highly collected by many museums and collectors all across the world. Despite her prolific and long career, her works do not come up for sale often. When they do, there is always strong competition. Her work can be viewed at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, the American Folk Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the High Museum of Art.

A review of a 2017 exhibit notes the contrast between Evans' later works -- "increasingly sophisticated" faces and greater "familiarity with nature"—with her first drawings between 1935 and 1940, which "indicate her innate genius and awareness, in the raw and in transition."[15]

Publications

Art exhibition catalogues, in ascending order by date:

  • Starr, Nina Howell (1975). Minnie Evans (exhibition catalogue). Whitney Museum of American Art.
  • Kahan, Mitchell (1986). Heavenly Visions: the Art of Minnie Evans, January 18 - April 13, 1986, North Carolina Museum of Art (exhibition catalogue). Raleigh, North Carolina: North Carolina Museum of Art.
  • Black Folk Artists: Minnie Evans & Bill Traylor - African American Museum, Hempstead, New York, 10 June - 10 September 1989. African American Museum, Hempstead, New York. 1989.
  • Lovell, Charles M; Hester, Erwin (1993). Minnie Evans: Artist (exhibition catalogue). Greenville, North Carolina: Wellington B. Gray Gallery, East Carolina University. ISBN 978-0963675903.
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References
  1. "Evans, Minnie". Oxford Art Online. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Oxford University Press. 2011. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2086867. ISBN 9780195335798. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  2. Smith, Jessie Carney; Phelps, Shirelle (1992). Notable Black American Women, Book II. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Inc. pp. 205–206. ISBN 9780810391772. December 12, 1892
  3. Lyons, Mary. Painting Dreams. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780395720325.
  4. Brennan, Anne. "Minnie Evans: Dreams in Color". Folk Art Messenger (Spring 2005).
  5. Kerman, Nathan (1997-07-01). "Aspects of Minnie Evans". On Paper; the Journal of Prints, Drawings, and Photography - Volume 1, Number 6. 1: 12–16.
  6. Smithsonian American Art Museum. "Minnie Evans".
  7. Otfinoski, Steven (2014). African Americans in the Visual Arts. A to Z of African Americans, Facts on File library of American history. New York City, NY: Facts on File, Inc. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9781438107776.
  8. "A Finding Aid to the Nina Howell Starr papers, 1933-1996". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  9. Lyons, Mary E. (1996). Painting Dreams. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 34. ISBN 0-39572032-X.
  10. "African American Artist Minnie Evans". ArtandDesignInspiration. 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
  11. "The Angel That Stands By Me". Folkstreams. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  12. Outsider Art Sourcebook, ed. John Maizels, Raw Vision, Watford, 2009, p.71
  13. Kahan, Mitchell (1986). Heavenly Visions: Art of Minnie Evans. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art. ISBN 0-88259-951-8.
  14. Minnie Evans: Artist. Greenville, NC: Wellington B. Gray Gallery. 1993. ISBN 0-9636759-0-7.
  15. Smith, Roberta (February 17, 2017). "What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week: Minnie Evans". New York Times. p. C22. Retrieved 9 March 2017.

Further reading
  • Starr, Nathan Comfort (March 1969). "The Unique Folk Artist of Airlie". The State: 16–17.
  • John Walker Myers, "Minnie Evans: Off in the Garden to Talk With God." The Southern Quarterly. Volume 35, Number I, Fall 1996. pp. 74-83
  • Lyons, Mary E. (1996). Painting Dreams: Minnie Evans, Visionary Artist (1 ed.). New York City, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0395720325.
  • Kernan, Nathan (July 1997). "Aspects of Minnie Evans". On Paper, The Journal of Prints, Drawing, & Photos. Vol. Volume 1, Number 6. p. 12-16.
  • Wharton, Fred; Block, Susan Taylor (2008). The Bottle Chapel at Airlie Gardens: A Tribute to Minnie Evans. Wilmington, North Carolina: Publishing Laboratory, University of North Carolina Wilmington. ISBN 978-0979140365.
  • Maizels, John (2009). Outsider Art Sourcebook. Raw Vision. Raw Vision Magazine. ISBN 978-0954339326.
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