<I>Mercury</I>
date: label: Date
content: after 1940
name: label: Created by
content: Minnie Evans, American, 1892 - 1987
notes: label: Caption
content: One of the leading visionary artists of the 20th century, Minnie Evans was said to derive inspiration from her religious beliefs and her dreams. In Mercury, eyes, which she regarded as God’s omniscience, are the focus, but she also demonstrates a deep love for all living things. The way her work incorporates humans, animals, birds, and flowers suggests that for her, all entities are equal.
label: Caption
content: Evans is said to have started drawing and painting on Good Friday in 1935. She used paper bags and stationery for her first works. Like many artists without formal training, she employed material that was readily available. Evans has been widely exhibited, including a solo show at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in 1975.
label: Description
content: A drawing in colored pencil and ink on paper of a female figure wearing a headdress, surrounded by birds, the sun, a large moth or butterfly, and other natural motifs. The drawing is vertically symmetrical with the left side serving as a mirror image of the right side. The upper center of the drawing is a female face with large, elongated eyes. She wears a large headdress with stylized horns rising from the outside corners of her eyes to the top of the page. In the upper left and upper right quadrants are several depictions of stylized wings of varying shapes and colors, including and additional pair of eyes within the wings. Below the face is a depiction of a rising (or setting) sun on the horizon over water. At the center of the drawing, at the female figure's left and right shoulders, are two (2) identical birds. The birds are drawn in profile in yellow, with red heads and red tips on the wings and tail. The birds hold a garland between their beaks that forms a kind of necklace draped against the female's neck. In the lower half of the image, at center, is a butterfly with eyes depicted in the upper left and upper right corner of its wings. The wings are depicted in a gradient rainbow of colors beginning with dark blue near the body and ending in orange on the edges of the wings. On either side of the butterfly are stylized wings in cooler hues. In the lower right corner, on the right-hand side, is the title hand-written in cursive [Mercury]. In the lower right corner, along the bottom, is the artist's signature [Minnie Evans]. On the back in the upper left corner is the title [Mercury]. In the lower right corner on the back is the artist's signature [Minnie Evans].
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: American South
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Nature
label: Topic
content: Women
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Roberta L.K. Melton
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2013.233
objectType: label: Type
content: drawings
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Minnie Evans
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: colored pencil, ink, and graphite on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 8 7/8 × 11 11/16 in. (22.5 × 29.7 cm)