In This Issue…
- Editor’s Perspective: Building a Legacy of Pride
- Collector’s Perspective: Walter O. Evans, MD — Insight & Advice From an Expert — Buy What You Like!
- Next Issue: The Art of Joseph Holston
Editor’s Perspective: Building a Legacy of Pride
For some months now, Voicing Art has been featuring emerging, mid-career, and established artists. Wanting to share a collector’s perspective, this issue is dedicated to Walter O. Evans, a retired surgeon, and a significant African American art collector. Recently, I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Evans speak about his life and art collecting experience at the Collectors’ Roundtable, an event held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His presentation was informative and featured some artists that were new to me. It was inspiring to hear how his collection of historical gems had evolved overtime. His story seemed to exemplify how building relationships within the art community enriches our culture. After his presentation, Dr. Evans held a book signing of The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art. This catalogue is a valuable edition to any library because it spans 150+ years of art by master African American artists. This full-color, 165 page collection catalogue includes 80 color plates. And, writings by art historians, Andrea B. Barnwell, Tritobia Hayes Benjamin, Kirsten P. Buick, and Amy M. Mooney provide visual, social, and political context. If you want to feel uplifted and cultural pride, click her to order The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art.
Collector’s Perspective: Dr. Walter O. Evans — Insight & Advice From an Expert — Buy What You Like!
I get joy out of tracking the items down, the rarity of it. I want to own it. That may be selfish, but that’s what makes me a collector–not an investor…I want to invest in my culture…Culture defines a people and art is a significant part of that definition, like music and literature.
Walter O. Evans, MD is a humanitarian, that special breed that cares about mankind, making a difference, and contributing to the whole. As a patron of the arts, he’s spent the past 30 years, building a visual legacy to share with the world and although not a household name, in the art community he’s quite well known. His claim to fame, The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, is one of the largest, privately owned African American art collections on the globe. The collection includes hundreds of pieces of art and is historically significant because there are paintings, sculptures, photographs, and works on paper by master artists and historical figures spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Notably, he has the largest privately-owned collections of works by Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, both of whom emerged during the New Negro Movement of the Harlem Renaissance.
Evans’ journey was not deliberate, but began instinctively from a desire to decorate his home with images of African American art and culture. He wanted his daughters to be familiar with African American artists and to know that African American artists were as capable as European artists. Growing up in Savannah, Georgia, and Beaufort, South Carolina in the1940’s, he couldn’t visit the segregated galleries and museums to see art done by European artists, and these institutions were definitely not exhibiting African American artwork. Fortunately, a great sense of black pride was instilled in him by his teachers in the all black elementary schools that he attended, as well as by his family, who educated him about celebrated African American writers, artists, educators, and activist. Later, as a young adult, when he visited mainstream galleries and museums across the United States and abroad, he recognized the persistent omission of black imagery. This absence of African American representation would later serve as a prime motivation for Evans to remedy this oversight.
Man Fishing, c. 1848
Robert Scott Duncanson
Oil on canvas 25 x 30
Little did he know that his first major purchase in the late 1970’s, a portfolio of 22 silkscreen prints entitled The Legend of John Brown by Jacob Lawrence was ushering in a new episode in his life. From then on, Evans was officially “hooked” on acquiring art, books, and documents related to the African American cultural experience. His research led him to begin searching for, and acquiring paintings and sculptures by 19th century masters such as Edward Mitchell Bannister, Robert Scott Duncanson, Mary Edmonia Lewis, Charles Ethan Porter, and Henry Osawa Tanner. Evans seeks art that’s rare, like Nelson Primus whose work is limited to approximately 14 known pieces because most were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He enjoys attending auctions because they let him know what the market will bear. And, he explains that up until a few years ago, when he attended the Swann Auction Galleries (one of the few New York auction houses featuring black art) there weren’t many works by African Americans up for sale, and mainly he and Bill Cosby were bidding.
Things changed significantly once wealthy industrialist and art collector Richard Manoogian, one of America’s foremost collector’s of American art, became interested in “blockbuster” African American art. When word got out that Manoogian was buying African American art, museums and institutions became interested as well. Subsequently, the prices of the art works being auctioned today have risen to new heights. Five or so years ago, Sotheby’s and Christie’s finally got on the bandwagon, and now the increased demand for African American art has knocked Evans out of the price range for many of the important works.
Aside from the auction houses, Evans also purchases from galleries, dealers, and sometimes directly from the artists. He’s commissioned nearly a hundred works by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Richard Hunt, Fred Jones and others. These pieces, done especially for him, are very special because he collaborated with the artists by providing a theme or explaining a mood that he wanted captured and embodied in the work.
The Marriage of Hiawatha, c. 1868
Mary Edmonia Lewis
White marble 29 x 11 ½ x 12
Evans never buys art as a financial investment because he has no intention of selling. He has no preference in medium or style and his collection is an eclectic mix of genres. His focus has been on building a historically significant collection of established artists. He admits there are a few pieces that he wishes he hadn’t purchased because they may not have been in the best condition, he didn’t care for the subject matter, restoration work was poorly done, or because he felt the work wasn’t a major or “best representative” piece by the artist.
Genesis Creation Sermon VII:
And God Created Man and Woman, 1989
Jacob Lawrence
Gouache on paper 29 ¾ x 22
Evans advises new collectors to buy what they like, to research the artist, and get experts to authenticate the artwork. He adds that a purchase is a good deal if you like the art and you are willing to pay the price. He stresses that it’s important to like what you’re buying because if the value doesn’t go up you won’t feel stuck. Evans suggests that new collectors buy originals by emerging artists, and signed, limited edition prints of established artists which are still affordable.
The Block II, 1972Romare Bearden
Collage on board 25 x 74
Evans states that building his collection has been a life-changing experience. It’s opened cultural avenues for him and brought new and different people into his life – artists, collectors, museum directors and personnel…and the many fellow art lovers he meets in the course of lending his artwork. Evans believes in sharing the cultural legacy that he has amassed. He and his wife, Linda, assembled a selection of over 80 works from their collection and put it on the road. This traveling exhibition toured continuously from 1991 to 2007 and was exhibited in over 45 museums and galleries throughout the country. They also loan individual pieces upon request to museums and to the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program. They established The Walter O. Evans Foundation for Art and Literature to ensure the collection stays intact and that it will continue to serve as an educational resource for African American art and culture.
Homage to Black Women Poets, 1984 Elizabeth Catlett
Mahogany 69 x 15 x 13
Evans says he has no clue on his next cultural investment; he’s waiting like the rest of us for the economy to improve. In the meantime, he is excited that a large portion of his collection has been donated to the Savannah College of Art and Design where it will become the centerpiece of The Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies. Construction on the facility in Savannah, Georgia, the city of his birth, will begin later this year with a planned completion and opening date in 2010.
Order an autographed copy of The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art by emailing lindajevans@bellsouth.net for details.
Next Issue: The Art of Joseph Holston
