Minnie Evans

Published with High Museum of Art.

American artist Minnie Evans (1892–1987) once said her drawings of harmoniously intertwined human, botanical and animal forms came from visions of "the lost world," or nations destroyed by the Great Flood as described in the Book of Genesis. As the visions she experienced in childhood became stronger, Evans produced a large body of work ranging from abstract to representational styles. When she turned 56, she transitioned from decades of employment as a domestic worker to collecting admissions at Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, North Carolina. She made art during idle moments and hung it on and near the Gardens' wrought-iron gate. Selling or giving away her drawings to visitors led to a wider reputation and eventually a 1966 exhibition at a New York church titled The Lost World of Minnie Evans.
This publication reprises that 1966 title, honoring Evans' interest in biblical and ancient civilizations while foregrounding the spiritual and historical circumstances of her extraordinary life. More than 100 of her artworks are presented in a range of contexts, from the extrasensory experiences of her visions to the double-edged realities of her life in the Jim Crow South. Her drawings, beautiful and complex, thus become portals into her "lost world."