The Whitney (General Museum Visit - 2 pts.) Alyssa Amaker

 

    I visited the Whitney Museum of American art in manhattan's West Village district and explored the work of Wilmington, N.C. native Minnie Evans. As a South Carolinian visitng New York, it felt nice to see a local Southerner's work so far away from home. Her psyhedelic symmetry and vibrant hues of red, orange, pink, and purple felt welcoming and calm.

I particularly enjoyed the historical context of Evans' work— the exhibition took note of the fact that Evans created art in the midst of American wartime shortages on materials like paper and pigment during World War II. I loved seeing her frayed strips of paper, dotted and dashed with intricate patterns of lackluster crayon color. 

    An aspect of her work that really intrigued me was that she only depicted angels as white people with blond hair and blue or brown eyes. The museum's descriptions of these paintings explained that Evans, despite being an African American during the black power movement of hte mid-twentieth century, did not paint her angels as having black features. The description stated that Evans received criticism for not painting black angels, but she justified her stylistic choices by saying that she simply painted the visions she saw in her head. I believe Evans' authenticity and comittment to accurately translating her visions into a physical medium is admirable, but considering that she has roots in the AME church, I am interested in why her subconcious made a correlation between seraphim and whiteness.

    I also liked this painting by a different artist (whose name I could not find) which was featured in the Andy Warhol exhibit titled "Untitled (America).

- Alyssa Amaker