National Museum of African American History and Culture Breaks Ground

The Delaware Art Museum presents Painted Poetry: The Art of Mary Page Evans, a retrospective exhibition featuring approximately 50 paintings and drawings created by the artist between the 1960s and 2011. On view March 31 through July 15, 2012, this exhibition highlights Evans’ vibrant depictions of nature and the human form while celebrating the artist’s distinguished career.

Twilight, 2010 Mary Page Evans (born 1937) Oil on canvas, 50 1/2 x 43 inches Collection of Olwen Pongrace

To accompany the exhibition, the Delaware Art Museum is producing a richly illustrated catalogue with an artist interview and an essay by Philadelphia painter Bill Scott. The book also highlights a selection of poems that have inspired Mary Page Evans, as well as works inspired by her pictures. Featured poets include Howard Nemerov, Billy Collins, Moira Linehan, Adrianne Marcus, Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, and Susan Jackson. This hardback volume, published by the Delaware Art Museum and Hudson Hills Press, will be available at the Museum Store for $45.

Mary Page Evans works directly from nature, seeking to capture a specific landscape, figure, tree, or sky. Her vibrant paintings and drawings evoke particular places—gardens in Delaware and France, a mountain in the Shenandoah Valley, the Florida coast—sites she returns to again and again, chronicling them in different moods and seasons. Displaying work made over more than 40 years, Painted Poetry is organized thematically to highlight Evans’ longstanding interests: landscapes, gardens, figures, trees, seas, and skies.

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Mary Page Evans graduated with a degree in music from Hollins University in Roanoke. After college she studied at the Art Students League in New York and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. She has lived in Delaware for nearly 50 years, since her marriage to former Delaware Congressman Tom Evans. After moving to Wilmington, she took classes at the Delaware Art Museum and with artists Ed Loper and Tom Bostelle. Starting in the 1970s, Evans has been honored with many solo exhibitions, especially in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. She is represented by Carspecken-Scott in Wilmington, Delaware, and Addison/Ripley Fine Art in Washington, D.C. Her paintings and drawings are in public, private, and corporate collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University.

The Delaware Art Museum, located at 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE 19806, is open Wednesday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday noon – 4:00 p.m. Admission fees are charged as follows: Adults (19 – 59) $12, Seniors (60+) $10, Students (with valid ID) $6, Youth (7 – 18) $6, and Children (6 and under) free. Admission fees are waived every Sunday. For more information, call 302-571-9590 or 866-232-3714 (toll free), or visit the website at www.delart.org

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