Object Details
Artist
Minnie Evans, born Long Creek, NC 1892-died Wilmington, NC 1987
Gallery Label
Minnie Evans lived most of her life in North Carolina. At seventeen, she found work as a gatekeeper in the lush gardens of a coastal estate, Airlie-on-Sound, which became a public park in 1949. Evans felt inspired by God to celebrate his resplendent creations with art. In free moments, she drew or painted floral scenes with goddess-like figures in their midst. In Airlie Oak, Evans honored an immense 400-year-old tree at Airlie; a live oak over twenty-feet-wide at the base. She created this bas-relief from bits of dried paint, made malleable with turpentine and added cumulatively over time, as she explained: "I just kept on doing that until I got this big old tree."
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Josh Feldstein
Date
1954
Object number
2017.35.2
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Painting-Mixed Media
Medium
oil paint on wood
Dimensions
14 × 18 × 2 in. (35.6 × 45.7 × 5.1 cm)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Landscape\tree\oak tree
Object\furniture\bench
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_2017.35.2