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Beverly Buchanan
Beverly Buchanan.jpg
Born October 8, 1940
Fuquay, North Carolina U.S.
Died July 4, 2015(2015-07-04) (aged 74)
Ann Arbor, Michigan U.S.
Occupation Painter
Sculptor

Beverly Buchanan (born October 8, 1940 – died July 4, 2015) was an amazing African-American artist. She created many kinds of art, like paintings, sculptures, videos, and even art made with the land itself! She was famous for showing off Southern "vernacular architecture" in her art. This means she focused on simple, everyday buildings, especially homes, that people built themselves.

Growing Up and Learning

Beverly Buchanan was born in Fuquay, North Carolina. She grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, with her great-aunt and uncle. Her adoptive father worked at South Carolina State College. This was a special school for African Americans at the time.

She often went with her father on trips. He helped farmers in the countryside with their crops. These trips helped Beverly see and understand the simple homes and buildings in rural areas.

In 1962, Beverly graduated from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. This college was for Black women. She earned a science degree. Later, she went to Columbia University and earned two master's degrees. Even though she was accepted into medical school, Beverly decided to follow her passion for art. She wanted to show the stories and buildings from her childhood through her artwork.

Becoming an Artist

In 1971, Beverly Buchanan started taking an art class in New York City. Her teacher was a famous artist named Norman Lewis. He, along with another artist named Romare Bearden, became important friends and mentors to her.

Beverly decided to become a full-time artist in 1977. This happened after her art was shown in a special exhibit at the Betty Parsons Gallery. That same year, she moved to Macon, Georgia.

Art About Walls and Ruins

In the late 1970s, Beverly started drawing "black walls" on paper. She wanted to imagine what was on the other side of a wall. Then, she began making sculptures out of cement. One of her early 3D artworks is called "Ruins and Rituals." It's at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, Georgia. These concrete sculptures look like ancient tombs.

Beverly explained that her art was about her interest in textures and surfaces. She liked to imagine who lived in old, torn-down buildings. She saw how different families had painted the walls over time. She said it was like looking at layers under a microscope.

The "Shack" in Her Art

Beverly Buchanan is most famous for her many paintings and sculptures of "shacks." These are simple, basic homes often linked to people who don't have much money. But Beverly saw these shacks differently.

She believed shacks were symbols of strength and personal history. She often used bright colors and a simple style, like a child's drawing. Her art showed the warmth and happiness that could be found even in the simplest homes. It represented the faith and care that exists in all communities.

Her art also included stone pedestals, mixed-material sculptures, and even funny poems. All her works shared important ideas about identity, where we belong, and shared memories. She wanted to connect with people and explore the history of her communities.

Beverly didn't mind when people sat on her stone art piece called Unity Stones. She felt it was a good thing. She said the piece was a place for people to sit, talk, and think together.

Art and Community

Beverly Buchanan had a studio on College Street in Macon, Georgia. This street was like an unofficial line that separated different parts of town. It divided the working-class Black community from the middle-class white community.

In 1981, Beverly created a special outdoor sculpture called Marsh Ruins. It was in coastal Georgia. She placed three concrete shapes and covered them with a material called tabby. Over time, Marsh Ruins slowly broke down into the marsh. Beverly even made a video to show this process.

When asked what "home" meant to her, Beverly said it was where she had settled down. But it also meant South Carolina, where she grew up. She considered home to be the place where she was raised.

Later Life and Legacy

Beverly Buchanan passed away on July 4, 2015, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was 74 years old.

In 2016, a big exhibition of her work opened at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. It was called Beverly Buchanan - Ruins and Rituals. It showed her paintings, sculptures, drawings, and even her personal notebooks and photos.

Beverly once said, "A lot of my pieces have the word ‘ruins’ in their titles because I think that tells you this object has been through a lot and survived — that’s the idea behind the sculptures ... it’s like, ‘Here I am; I’m still here!’" This shows how her art celebrated strength and survival.

Her work was also shown in a special exhibition in the UK in 2020. It featured twenty African-American artists.

Beverly Buchanan's art can be found in many important museums. These include the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Her work continues to inspire people today.

Awards and Recognition

Beverly Buchanan received many awards for her amazing art. Here are some of them:

Selected Art Shows

Beverly Buchanan's art was shown in many solo exhibitions (shows just for her work). Here are a few:

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