Nellie Rush's House
Artist
Beverly Buchanan
(American, 1940 - 2015)
CultureAmerican
Date1992
MediumWood, tar, and clay
DimensionsOverall: 15 x 7 x 9 in. (38.1 x 17.8 x 22.9 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist
Object number92.30
Not on view
DescriptionNELLIE RUSH'S HOUSE is one of the first in a series of new "shacks" which Buchanan calls "shotgun shacks"--a term that refers to a structure where the viewer can see through both the front and back doors simultaneously.Label TextBeverly Buchanan American, 1940-2015 Nellie Rush's House, 1992 Wood, tar, and clay Gift of the artist 92.30 Nellie Mae went around the yard, every day, looking for the right stick to draw with in the dirt. The yard in front of their house was her favorite drawing spot. The road to town was too dusty and wide and busy. Her Grandfather, Ollie Malcolm Rush, built this house for his family, a long time ago. It's called a shot gun house. Studying the vulnerable-looking structures dotting roadsides in the South is something Beverly Buchanan has done since childhood. She accompanied her father, who was an agricultural agent, on his travels to advise tenant farmers, stayed in their humble dwellings, and heard their stories. Buchanan earned master's degrees in both public health and parasitology and originally embarked on a career in public health. While working in New York, she studied at the Art Students League and gradually devoted increasing amounts of time to creating sculpture. She moved to Georgia and devoted herself to making art full-time. Her interests in texture, fragments, society and personal histories ultimately embraced the culture of the shack when she moved back South. Building on memories and imagination, Buchanan creates vibrant drawings, such as Fences, also in the exhibition, as well as constructing shacks. She juxtaposes these works with legends that bring the poverty, struggles and ingenuity of the shackdweller to life. Though despair and hardship are clearly evident, these works do not signify hopelessness but rather stand as joyful elegies that salute the integrity, resilience and resolution of the shackdwellers. In Nellie Rush's House, we learn that a child lives in the house her grandfather built and that she likes to draw. Knowing this gives this humble-looking house a character and personality of its own, and brings a positive note to, what is now, a grim and ever present fact of our lives in the 20th century. Edited By: GLYExhibition History"Beverly Buchanan: ShackWorks, A 16-Year Survey", The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, April 10 - May 22, 1994; Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI, July - September, 1994; The Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY, October - December, 1994; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, January - March, 1995; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, May 12 - July 9, 1995; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC, July - September, 1995; Kutztown University, Sharedin Gallery, Kutztown, PA, October - December, 1995; Edison Community College, Fort Meyers, FL, January - March, 1996; Brenau University Gallery of Art, Gainesville, GA, April - June, 1996; Chattahoochie Vallery Art Museum, La Grange, GA, June 8 - July ?, 1996. "Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," October 25, 1996 - February 16, 1997 "Beverly Buchanan: Ruins and Rituals," Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, October 21, 2016 - March 5, 2017; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA, September 14 - December 2, 2017.Published ReferencesMarilyn Stewart, "Beverly Buchanan: Symbols of Community", SCHOOL ARTS, Vol. 94, No. 9 (May/June 1995), ill. in black and white.
