The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art [Paperback]

Walter O. Evans (Author), Tritobia Benjamin (Introduction), Andrea D. Barnwell (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0295979224 | ISBN-13: 978-0295979229 | Publication Date: January 2000

Dr. Walter O. Evans first purchased a portfolio of prints by Jacob Lawrence in the late 1970s. Now, more than 20 years after acquiring his first piece of fine art, Dr. Evans owns a phenomenal collection that ranges from choice works by the expatriate artists Mary Edmonia Lewis and Henry Ossawa Tanner to noteworthy pieces by the celebrated innovators Charles White, Richard Hunt, and Archibald J. Motley, Jr. "The Evans Collection" also contains the greatest number of works by foremost artists Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden in private hands. "The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art" features a broad selection of outstanding works from this important private collection. Eighty colour plates illustrate the aesthetic legacy created by African American artists over more than 150 years. The pioneering landscape painters Edward Mitchell Bannister, Robert Scott Duncanson, and Charles Ethan Porter are represented, as are the modern artists Richmond Barthe and Aaron Douglas, who were progressive participants in the flowering of African American culture during the Harlem Renaissance. Also included are paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by Elizabeth Catlett, Eldzier Cortor, and Horace Pippin, artists first acclaimed during the 1930s and 1940s. In addition, the book documents the work of other modern artists, such as Beauford Delaney, Norman Lewis, and Alma Thomas, who experimented with form and abstraction in recent decades. In an introduction and substantive essays four notable scholars examine the visual, social, and political contexts that influenced the artists. Dr. Evans contributes a personal statement about the joy he finds in collecting - and his desire to advance knowledge of and appreciation for the rich heritage created by American artists of African descent.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Over 20 years, Dr. Walter Evans assembled a most impressive collection of art works by African American artists. This catalog to the traveling exhibition of a major portion of the collection provides a visual survey of significant artists from the mid-19th to the late 20th centuries. (The international exhibition will be seen in this country at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.) More than 80 color plates show works arranged alphabetically by artist's name, followed by a section of succinct, well-researched artists' biographies. Preceding the plates are six essays related to the collection and the development of African American art. Tritobia Benjamin's introduction; the foreword by Barnwell, a MacArthur Fellow at the Art Institute of Chicago; and Evans's own "Reflections on Collecting" address the significance of the collection and how it came to be; three other scholarly essays focus on specific artists and their roles in art history. While not a textbook survey, this catalog documents an important aspect of American art in a broad and inclusive manner, and it is highly recommended for any library interested in art or African American studies.DEugene C. Burt, Seattle
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

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Product Details

• Paperback: 165 pages
• Publisher: Tide-Mark Press (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295979224
• ISBN-13: 978-0295979229
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)