Maud Gatewood (NC, 1934-2004), Fallen Tree

Pencil and polymer on paper, appears unsigned, retaining unidentified exhibition label to verso, matted and framed below glass.

Sheet sight 10 x 10 in.; Frame dimensions 21 x 17 in.

Maud Gatewood, one of North Carolina’s most celebrated and sought-after artists, was born and raised in the rural town of Yanceyville, the daughter of the Caswell County sheriff. She began formal art training at the age of ten at Averett College in Danville, Virginia, and earned her B.F.A. from North Carolina Woman’s College (now UNC-Greensboro) in 1954, studying under Gregory Ivy. A year later, she completed her M.A. in Painting at Ohio State University, and in 1963, she was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Grant to study with expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka in Austria.

Gatewood returned to North Carolina in 1964 to become the founding head of the Art Department at UNC-Charlotte, where she taught until 1973. She later joined the faculty at Averett College, teaching there from 1975 until her retirement in 1997. Throughout her distinguished career, Gatewood was not only a dedicated educator whose influence extended well beyond the South, but also an artist whose disciplined technique and strong sense of place earned her lasting recognition as a defining figure in 20th-century Southern art.

Good estate condition, some toning to the mat, not examined outside the frame.