Evangeline Montgomery facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Evangeline Montgomery
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| Born |
Evangeline Juliet Montgomery
May 2, 1930 New York, New York, U.S.
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| Nationality |  United States |
| Alma mater | California College of the Arts |
| Known for | Printmaking, Metalwork |
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Notable work
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Ancestral boxes, Colorful lithographs |
Evangeline Juliet "EJ" Montgomery, born on May 2, 1930, in New York City, is an amazing American artist. She is famous for her metal artwork, but she also creates prints, makes lithographs (a type of print), and has worked as a curator (someone who organizes art shows). In 1999, she received a special award called the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award for her long and successful career.
An art expert named Floyd Coleman said she is a very important person in American art. He mentioned that she has spent many years helping to promote art and build communities. She is known for being an artist, an art manager, and an activist who works for good causes.
Early Life and Education
Evangeline Montgomery was born in New York City. Her father, Oliver Thompson, was a minister, and her mother, Carmelite Thompson, took care of their home. She found her artistic talent and love for painting when she was 14, after getting an oil painting set.
After finishing Seward Park High School, Montgomery worked painting faces on dolls and religious statues. In 1955, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband. There, she worked for Thomas Usher, an African American jewelry designer.
She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree in 1969 from the California College of Arts and Crafts. She focused on metallurgy, which is the study of metals and how to work with them. After graduating, she worked as an independent curator and consultant from 1967 to 1979. She also advised "Black Art" for Rainbow Sign, an active Black cultural center in Berkeley, California.
Art Career and Advocacy
As a curator, Evangeline Montgomery was a strong supporter of the arts. She worked hard to make sure more African American artists were shown in galleries and museums. She became an Ethnic Art Consultant at the Oakland Museum of California. In this role, she successfully put together eight exhibitions featuring both well-known and new Black artists.
One important show she organized in 1971 was about the African American sculptor Sargent Johnson (1887-1967). She also curated a 1970 exhibition called "California Black Craftsmen," which showed the work of nineteen artists. Montgomery found many old documents about Johnson, an artist who was active during the Harlem Renaissance (a time of great artistic and cultural growth for Black Americans). Her exhibition helped people remember and appreciate Johnson's important work in African American art.
In 1980, Montgomery moved to Washington, DC, to become the community affairs director for WHMM-TV. In 1983, she started working for the US State Department's Arts America Program. Through this program, Montgomery helped create successful fine art programs both in the United States and in other countries. As a curator, she organized more than 200 exhibitions during her career.
In 2005, an organization called Blacks in Government (BIG) started the Evangeline J. Montgomery Scholarship Fund. This fund has given out over $40,000 in scholarships to help students.
Evangeline Montgomery's Artworks
As an artist, Montgomery has used many different materials and styles. Her famous metal "ancestral boxes" are made of sterling silver. She often adds semi-precious stones and interesting objects she finds. Montgomery has said these boxes are meant "to hold something precious." They show her thoughts on how memory and memorials are important in human history.
One of her first boxes, "Ancestor Box 1: Justice for Angela," was made in 1971. She created it in response to the trial of political activist Angela Davis. This box includes the Ashanti symbol for justice. Another major artwork is "Red, Black and Green Ancestral Box - Garvey Box" (1973). It is made of sterling silver with red, black, and green enamel, reminding people of Marcus Garvey, a leader who promoted Black pride.
A health condition called Parkinson's disease has made it harder for Montgomery to work with metal. Because of this, she has started to focus more on printmaking.
Montgomery explains her artistic ideas and inspiration: "My visual ideas are expressed abstractly by creating geometrical compositions with overlays of textured forms. In this process, new color configurations emerge. My inspiration for color development has always been interpreting the transparencies found in nature—its nuances and richness of surfaces, textures, and brilliant color whether in plants, water, stone, and incredible variation of life forms." This means she uses shapes and textures to create new color patterns, inspired by the beautiful colors and textures found in nature.
Montgomery has shown her art in many solo and group exhibitions across the United States. Her work has been displayed in museums and galleries in states like Delaware, Maryland, DC, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey, Louisiana, Florida, and New York. Many of her artworks are part of private collections and permanent museum collections. These include the Paul Jones Collection of the University of Delaware, the Oakland Museum of California, The Diane Whitfield-Locke and Carnell Locke Collection, the Los Angeles Board of Education, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Ruth Chandler Collection of California, and the Library of Congress. She currently lives in Washington, DC.
