Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Additional Online Media

Catalog Data

Creator:
Buchanan, Beverly, 1940-  Search this
Subject:
Lippard, Lucy R.  Search this
Sims, Lowery Stokes  Search this
Scott, Arden  Search this
Bernice Steinbaum Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Steinbaum Krauss Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Type:
Scrapbooks
Sketchbooks
Photograph albums
Motion picture film
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
18 Linear feet; 34.2 Gigabytes
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as ten series. Series 1: Biographical Material, 1917-2015 (Box 1, Boxes 19-20, Box 24; 0.6 linear feet) Series 2: Correspondence, 1919-1954, 1967-2017 (Boxes 1-2; 0.9 linear feet; ER01, 0.017 GB) Series 3: Writings, 1960-circa 2009 (Boxes 2-3, Box 24; 0.7 linear feet) Series 4: Exhibition and Project Files, 1974-2001, 2010-2017 (Boxes 3-4, Box 24, OV 21, FCs 22-23; 1.9 linear feet; ER02, 0.020 GB) Series 5: Professional Activities, 1962, 1979-2005 (Box 4, Box 19, Box 24; 0.3 linear feet) Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1966-2010 (Box 4; 0.3 linear feet) Series 7: Printed Material, 1912, 1923-2014 (Boxes 4-7, Box 19, Box 25, OV 21; 3.9 linear feet) Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1970-circa 1977 (Box 7, Box 20; 0.3 linear feet) Series 9: Photographic Material, circa 1920s-2013 (Boxes 7-13, Boxes 16-18, Box 20; 8.8 linear feet; ER03, 1.03 GB) Series 10: Artwork, 1956-2013, undated (Boxes 13-15, Box 20; 0.7 linear feet)
Access Note / Rights:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Summary:
The papers of African American sculptor, painter, and land artist Beverly Buchanan measure 18 linear feet and 34.2 gigabytes, and date from 1912 to 2017 with the bulk of the material dating from the 1970s to the 1990s. The collection contains biographical material, including audiovisual and born-digital interview recordings; correspondence; writings; and exhibition and project files, including audiovisual documentation from Bernice Steinbaum Gallery/Steinbaum Krauss Gallery. Material related to professional activities; personal business records; printed material, including born-digital and audiovisual records; scrapbooks; photographic material, including photograph albums; and artwork are also found in the collection.
Citation:
Beverly Buchanan papers, 1912-2017, bulk 1970s-1990s. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Funding:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Use Note:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Biography Note:
Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015) was an African American sculptor, painter, and land artist in Macon, Georgia. Born in Fuquay, North Carolina and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Buchanan studied medical technology at Bennett College before going on to earn two master's degrees in parasitology and public health from Columbia University in 1968 and 1969. Her artistic career began in 1971 when she enrolled in a class at the Art Students League in New York City taught by Norman Lewis. She moved to Georgia in 1977.
Buchanan is most well known for her "shack" sculptures and paintings, depictions of houses tied to Southern identity and memory.
Buchanan has been included in exhibitions at institutions such as Cinque Gallery, Truman Gallery, the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, GA, the Chrysler Museum, and a traveling retrospective exhibition organized by the Montclair Art Museum. Her work is included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, High Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Beverly Buchanan has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Anonymous Was a Woman Award, and the Women's Caucus for Art lifetime achievement award, among others. She died in 2015 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
The Beverly Buchanan papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 2018 by Jane Bridges, and in 2021 by Bridges and Susan Welsh, Buchanan's executors.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Environment (Art)  Search this
African American artists  Search this
Women artists  Search this
Women painters  Search this
Women sculptors  Search this
Theme:
African American  Search this
Women  Search this
Lives of artists  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)17599
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)396448
AAA_collcode_buchbeve
Theme:
African American
Women
Lives of artists
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_396448