Vesta Community - Beverly Buchanan

Where is it?

Concourse B

Buchanan's landscape is located in the hold room of Gate B-9.

About the Art

Vesta Community is a large oil pastel drawing of a colorful collection of multiple shacks. This work was designed to uplift the spirit of 'shack' dwellers everywhere, figurative and literal. Because of the positive response to her work by a variety of people from all over the United States, these dwellings are intended to celebrate a spirit of not just Southern Americans but people who have succeeded despite oppressive poverty and overwhelming obstacles.

"Remembering the look and feel of structures has been a strong focus in my drawings and sculptures. My vision and interest shifted to the reality of current places and their surrounding landscape." – Beverly Buchanan

The Details

Artist

Beverly Buchanan

Date

1991

Medium

Painting (oil pastel on paper)

Dimensions

3' 6" high x 7' 6" wide

Did you know?

This painting is the first piece of Buchanan's to be displayed in the Western United States. The shack community consists of shotgun houses, their architectural roots stemming from Central Africa.

About the Artist

Beverly Buchanan paints as a storyteller, imagining little legends to accompany her artworks. Her travels in rural South Carolina with her father are the source of the shacks as subject matter, and other childhood memories influence the color and emotion of her art.

Short Bio

Born in 1940 in Fuquay, North Carolina, Buchanan grew up on the campus of South Carolina State College, the only state-supported school for black students at the time. At the age of seven, the daughter of the college’s first black president asked Beverly to participate in an exhibition for university women.

She received a B.A. in medical technology and a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia. Working as a health educator in New Jersey, she realized that she “wanted to be an artist, not a doctor who paints.” She was welcomed into the Guggenheim three years later in 1980.

She lives today in Athens, Georgia, where she works in sculpture, drawing, painting, and photography.

Similar Artwork

At the Airport

Beverly Buchanan uses oil pastel to evoke emotion through the vibrating rhythm of color. Check out Karen Ganz's work at Sea-Tac Airport, titled Traveler, in which Ganz uses oil for an intention similar to that of Beverly Buchanan's. Follow the STQRY link below in the Connected Stories module to see Traveler.

Vesta Community - Beverly Buchanan

Beverly Buchanan's work evokes the warmth and happiness that can be found even in the meanest dwelling.