Beverly Buchanan

Beverly Buchanan

b. 1940, Fuquay, North Carolina
d. 2015, Ann Arbor, michigan

Beverly Buchanan’s work centers on the character of the dwellings typical of the vernacular architecture of the South, of which she was a native, having been born and raised in the Carolinas. Originally intending to become a physician, Buchanan earned degrees in science and medical subjects. However, after earning dual master’s degrees in parasitology (1968) and public health (1969) from Columbia University, New York, she elected to pursue art rather than medical school. She was drawn to the underlying symbolism of strength and perseverance associated with the “shacks”and ruins that she painted and sculpted. For her, they were not the abject structures that others saw, but rather examples of persistence, presence, and survival. She used rudimentary materials, such as wood scraps, to create semi-abstract replicas of homes, schools, barns, and cabins. Buchanan was twice named a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow (1980, 1990) and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1980). Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina; and the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia. In 2016 her work was the subject of a comprehensive exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, Beverly Buchanan–Ruins and Rituals.

Beverly Buchanan, John's Island Barn, 1987. Acrylic on foamcore, 12 x 15 x 11 inches. Courtesy of Andrew Edlin Gallery