Reminiscing
Artist
Beverly McIver
American, born 1962
Date2005
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensionsheight and width (Left panel): 24 × 30 in. (61 × 76.2 cm)
height and width (Center panel): 24 × 24 in. (61 × 61 cm)
height and width (Right panel): 24 × 30 in. (61 × 76.2 cm)
frame (Left panel): 24 3/4 × 30 3/4 × 1 in. (62.9 × 78.1 × 2.5 cm)
frame (Center panel): 24 3/4 × 24 3/4 × 1 in. (62.9 × 62.9 × 2.5 cm)
frame (Right panel): 24 3/4 × 30 3/4 × 1 in. (62.9 × 78.1 × 2.5 cm)
height and width (Center panel): 24 × 24 in. (61 × 61 cm)
height and width (Right panel): 24 × 30 in. (61 × 76.2 cm)
frame (Left panel): 24 3/4 × 30 3/4 × 1 in. (62.9 × 78.1 × 2.5 cm)
frame (Center panel): 24 3/4 × 24 3/4 × 1 in. (62.9 × 62.9 × 2.5 cm)
frame (Right panel): 24 3/4 × 30 3/4 × 1 in. (62.9 × 78.1 × 2.5 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the William R. Roberson Jr. and Frances M. Roberson Endowed Fund for North Carolina Art
Object number2005.7/a-c
On View
Not on viewBeverly McIver confronts the African American racial stereotype head on in an ongoing series of expressionist self-portraits. The series deals with her role in a society that has historically subjugated minorities and women. In most of her self-portraits, McIver paints herself in blackface and in costume, partly a reference to an earlier desire to be a professional clown when she was a teenager. (As a teen she took the conventional whiteface clown mask and changed it to blackface.) This self-portrait was painted at a time when McIver was striving to come to terms with her mother’s death. Without emphasizing it, the artist has again painted herself in blackface, for she is rarely out of character, even at times of personal mourning.
[J. Dasal, 2010]ProvenanceCreated North Carolina, 2005; collection of the artist; [Tyndall Galleries, Chapel Hill, NC]; sold to NCMA, 2005.
Published References"New Acquisitions: Sculpture, Photography and Painting," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (March/April 2006), discussed and illus. (color) 6-7.
Kenneth G. Rodgers, Beverly McIver: Raising Renee and Other Themes (exhibition catalogue) (Durham, NC: North Carolina Central University Art Museum, 2007), listed 90, illus. (color) 83-85.
Linda Johnson Dougherty, "A Home for North Carolina Art," in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Winter 2010), illus. (color) 17.
Jennifer Dasal, et al, Reflections: Portraits by Beverly McIver (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2011), cat. no. 7, illus. (color), also briefly discussed 24-25, illus. (color) 25.
Jennifer Dasal, "Reflections: Portraits by Beverly McIver," in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Winter 2012), illus. (color) 14-15.
Beverly McIver: Full Circle (exhibtion catalogue) (Scottsdale, AZ: Scottsdale Museum of Art, 2022-2023), 69 (plate 25, color).Exhibition HistoryChapel Hill, NC, Tyndall Galleries, "Beverly McIver: Recent Paintings," January 19-February 19, 2005.
Durham, NC, North Carolina Central University Art Museum, "Beverly McIver: Raising Renee and Other Themes," February 18-April 20, 2007, listed 90, illus. (color) 83-85.
Savannah, GA, Telfair Museum of Art's Jepson Center for the Arts, "Fast Forward: Three Decades of Contemporary Art from the North Carolina Museum of Art," January 23-April 27, 2008.
Wilmington, NC, Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum, "Bearden to Ruscha: Contemporary Art from the North Carolina Museum of Art," May 22, 2008-May 17, 2009.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Reflections: Portraits by Beverly McIver," December 11, 2011-June 24, 2012; Charlotte, NC, Mint Museum Uptown, July 14-October 21, 2012, cat. no. 7, illus. (color).
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Close to Home,” August 18, 2013–August 10, 2014.
Scottsdale, AZ, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, "Full Circle: Beverly McIver," February 12–September 4, 2022; Winston-Salem, NC, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), December 8–March 26, 2023; Charleston, SC, The Gibbes Museum of Art, April 28–August 4, 2023. Object Rights Statement
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