Minnie Evans (NC, 1892-1987), Untitled (face and foliage)

Oil crayon and graphite on paper, signed at lower right and dated 1940 in pencil, matted and framed under glass.

Sight size 11 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.; Frame dimensions 16 3/4 x 13 1/4 in.

From the Collection of the late Honorable Waldo C. Falkener, Sr. and Margaret Evans Falkener, Greensboro, North Carolina
Waldo C. Falkener (1902–1992) and his wife, Margaret Evelyn Evans Falkener (1919–2004), were prominent civic leaders from a distinguished African-American family in Greensboro, North Carolina, whose roots extended to abolitionist activism in Oberlin, Ohio. Waldo was a pioneering civil rights advocate who began pressing for equal access to Greensboro’s public facilities in the 1940s and, in 1959, became the city’s second Black councilman. During the 1960 Woolworth’s sit-ins, he was the only African American serving on the council. Over two terms he championed infrastructure improvements, public employment, and recreational access, later working as a bail bondsman and real estate developer.

Margaret, a graduate of Talladega College, was equally active in civic life. She was engaged in Democratic Party politics and deeply involved in Greensboro’s cultural and service organizations, including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Jack and Jill of America, The Girlfriends, United Way, and the Girl Scouts. Together, Waldo and Margaret embodied a family tradition of leadership in education, politics, and community building that stretched back to the nineteenth century.

Minnie Evans was a self-taught African American artist renowned for her vivid, visionary drawings that seamlessly blend religious symbolism, natural motifs, and dreamlike imagery. Born in Long Creek, North Carolina, and raised in Wilmington, Evans began creating art in 1935 after experiencing a spiritual vision that compelled her to draw. Her works, often rendered in wax crayon, pencil, and later oil and collage, are characterized by symmetrical compositions featuring faces, eyes, flowers, and fantastical creatures. Evans drew inspiration from her deep Christian faith, ancestral stories, and the lush surroundings of Airlie Gardens, where she worked as a gatekeeper—a role that allowed her to sell her art directly to visitors.

Currently, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is showcasing The Visionary Art of Minnie Evans, on view through October 26, 2025. This exhibition features 16 multimedia works on loan from the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, accompanied by letters and ephemera that illuminate Evans’s spiritual connection to nature and her community. The intricate, kaleidoscopic pieces reflect her inner world and the landscapes of her coastal North Carolina home.

Looking ahead, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta will present The Lost World: The Art of Minnie Evans, from November 14, 2025, to April 12, 2026. This retrospective—the first major exhibition of Evans’s work in three decades—will feature over 100 pieces, showcasing her unique visual language. Following its debut in Atlanta, the exhibition will travel to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in summer 2026, marking a return to the institution that hosted one of Evans’s first solo exhibitions in 1975.

Loss to edges of sheet, creasing to corners; toning to sheet.