1892-1987 · Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
On Good Friday 1935 a voice in a dream told her to draw or die. She drew, for fifty years, and the visions never once ran out.
The life
Evans grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, descended from a grandmother enslaved and brought from Trinidad. She saw visions from childhood, and after the Good Friday dream produced her first two ink drawings, she never really stopped. For decades she worked as the gatekeeper of Airlie Gardens, selling her drawings at the gate for pennies. The art world arrived late, with a Whitney Museum exhibition in 1975.
The work
Symmetrical faces wreathed in wings, eyes and impossible flowers, in crayon, ink and oil, somewhere between Eden, Revelation and the azaleas she guarded every day. She said she copied nothing, only what was shown to her. The work has the calm authority of someone taking dictation.
Why we love them
A gatekeeper by day in every sense, and the gate opened both ways. She let the visitors in and the visions out.
Go deeper
- Where to see outsider art, our full list of museums and collections.
- The glossary, if any of the terms here are new.
Kindred spirits
Madge Gill1882-1961, London, UK
Josefa Tolrà1880-1959, Cabrils, Catalonia, Spain
← All 46 artists in the field guide
Untrained and unstoppable, like them? Like us?