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Media Room
Dr. Walter O. Evans
After graduating from the University of Michigan School of Medicine in 1972, Dr. Evans completed his residency at Wayne State University and area hospitals. During this time, his interest in art grew, along with his awareness of the lack of African American art in America’s major museums. Evans became increasingly knowledgeable about African American art and started speaking with local enthusiasts including Shirley Woodson Reid, then owner of the Pyramid Gallery in Detroit, now Detroit Public Schools’ fine arts supervisor. Reid educated Evans about some emerging artists and in 1978 persuaded him to purchase Jacob Lawrence’s The Legend of John Brown from her gallery. Evans considered this purchase his first “investment into his culture.” In December 1979, Evans held a benefit at his Detroit residence for Romare Bearden’s wife’s dance company, where he purchased two Bearden pieces, Sunrise and Reclining Nude. Shortly thereafter, he held a reception for Elizabeth Catlett’s exhibition at the Pyramid gallery and bought two of her works, Pensive and Head of a Nigerian. Evans’ collection grew quickly as he sought advice from local collecting aficionado Richard Manoogian, and soon became an expert himself. Although now residing in Savannah, Georgia, Evans has continuously served Detroit and his culture by sitting on the boards of the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, delivering lectures at local universities and lending two paintings, Lament for a Bullfighter by Bearden and Cupid Caught by Mary Edmonia Lewis, to the mayor’s residence, the Manoogian Mansion, during Dennis Archer’s administration.
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Robert Scott Duncanson
New York-born Robert Scott Duncanson settled in Michigan in December 1845 and bought a house in Detroit, near his downtown studio. He soon after began to accept commissions from local wealthy families. Although intending to make a career of painting portraits, Duncanson took a commission in 1848 from Reverend Charles Avery, an impassioned abolitionist. He was charged with painting a mine that had earned a Methodist minister a small fortune in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Making frequent trips north between 1848 and 1850 to draw sketches, he found inspiration in the rugged landscape of Lake Superior and painted Man Fishing. Duncanson moved frequently for work, but finally settled in Detroit, where he died in 1872.
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Hughie Lee-Smith
Hugh Lee-Smith came to Detroit in 1934 upon receiving a scholarship to the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, now the College for Creative Studies. One year later, another scholarship attracted him to the Cleveland School of Art, but after getting married, Lee-Smith returned to Detroit in 1941. Lee-Smith took several art-related jobs in Detroit including working as a molder for Ford Motor Company while painting in his spare time. He then served in the U.S. Navy at the Great Lakes Naval Base where he worked as the official painter. Under the GI Bill of Rights, Lee-Smith had the opportunity to earn a degree from Wayne State University, graduating in 1953. He taught several art groups and gave private painting lessons to Ann Ford, wife of Henry Ford II, and John Stroh of Stroh Beer Company. Lee-Smith received many awards and was a member of several organizations, including the Michigan Academy of the Arts. He died in Albuquerque, NM in 1999.
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Image Caption: Edwin Harleston, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1920, oil on canvas. Walter O. Evans Collections. (left)