James Arliss Bumgardner (American, 1935-2015), Untitled (Two Figures at Night)

Oil on canvas, unsigned, framed.

Stretcher size 13 1/4 x 12 1/4 in.; Frame dimensions 13 3/4 x 12 3/4 in.

From the Private Collection of the late Ola Maie Foushee, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Ola Maie Foushee (1905–1999) was a North Carolina artist, writer, and arts advocate born in the mill village of Avalon in Rockingham County. Showing artistic talent from an early age, she studied art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Greensboro and later taught privately while exhibiting her largely abstract paintings throughout the Southeast. She was a charter member of the Associated Artists of North Carolina and active in several regional arts organizations, while also becoming known for her lectures and her long-running newspaper column, “Art in North Carolina,” published during the 1950s and 1960s.

In addition to her work as a painter, Foushee was an influential author and historian of North Carolina art. Her book Art in North Carolina: Episodes and Developments (1970) was long considered a foundational text on the subject. She also published works on regional history and biography, including studies of Avalon and North Carolina arts patron Katherine Pendleton Arrington. Foushee spent much of her adult life in Chapel Hill and Durham, where she remained active in the arts community until her death in 1999.

James Arliss Bumgardner was an American Expressionist painter, educator, and stage designer. A graduate and longtime professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, he studied with renowned Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann and became known for his abstract and later figurative interior compositions. His work was exhibited nationally and is represented in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Chrysler Museum of Art.

Stable craquelure.