Art News. Vasari Codex

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The article reflects on the responsibility of critical art writing in the Southeast, sparked by the announcement that Art Papers, an international art magazine based in Atlanta, will sunset in 2026 after 50 years. The author recounts a debate among local art workers about reviewing the forthcoming Minnie Evans retrospective organized by the High Museum of Art and traveling to the Whitney Museum, which he initially declined due to a conflict of interest with curator Katherine Jentleson. He ultimately agrees to write, emphasizing the need for Black scholars to engage with self-taught Black artists. The piece examines how Evans's narrative has been mediated through the lens of white photographer and art historian Nina Howell Starr, questioning the power dynamics and what remains unknown about Evans's own agency.

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Work of late Wilmington artist sees surge of national attention with 2 touring exhibits

The work of late Wilmington artist Minnie Evans is featured in two separate national exhibitions. One show, "The Visionary Art of Minnie Evans," is currently at the Boston Museum of Fine Art after opening at The Gund museum at Kenyon College, while a larger exhibition, "The Lost World: The Art of Minnie Evans," will open at Atlanta's High Museum of Art in November 2025 before traveling to New York's Whitney Museum in summer 2026. Evans, a self-taught artist who worked at Wilmington's Airlie Gardens and died in 1987, gained initial recognition in the 1960s after being discovered by photographer and art historian Nina Howell Starr, but had not been the subject of a major national gallery show since the 1990s.