Queena Stovall
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Queena Stovall (20 December 1887 – 27 June 1980) was an American folk artist. Sometimes called "The Grandma Moses of Virginia," she is famous for depicting everyday events in the lives of both white and black families in rural settings.


Early life

Born Emma Serena Dillard in
Amherst County, Virginia Amherst County is a county, located in the Piedmont region and near the center of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its county seat is also named Amherst. ...
, she received the nickname “Queena” from her grandmother because of the way young children would pronounce "Serena". She married Jonathan Breckenridge Stovall, a traveling salesman, in 1908 and the pair had nine children. The family lived in Lynchburg, Virginia during the fall and winter and on a farm near
Elon, Virginia Elon is an unincorporated community in Amherst County, Virginia, United States. The community is located along Virginia State Route 130 (Elon Road) northwest of Lynchburg. It is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area. History ...
during the spring and summer.


Career

After her brother persuaded her to take an art class at nearby
Randolph-Macon Woman’s College Randolph College is a private liberal arts and sciences college in Lynchburg, Virginia. Founded in 1891 as Randolph-Macon Woman's College, it was renamed on July 1, 2007, when it became coeducational. The college offers 32 majors; 42 minors; ...
in Lynchburg, Stovall began painting at age sixty-two. Her instructor there was Spanish artist
Pierre Daura Pierre Daura (in Catalan language, Catalan: Pere Francesc Daura i Garcia February 21, 1896 – January 1, 1976) was a Catalan artist. He was born on Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, a few days before his parents returned to their home in Barcelon ...
, who encouraged her to stop taking classes and develop her own unique style. Stovall's career spanned less than two decades, and she produced forty-nine paintings. Her art depicted scenes of ordinary rural life such as crop harvests, animal butchering, funerals, jarring for the winter, baptisms, cooking, and livestock and estate auctions. Stovall combined bright colors with attentive details, and would use figures out of magazines and advertisements to understand the composition needed for her paintings. Her first solo exhibition was at the Lynchburg Art Center in 1956. Stovall continued to paint until her health started to decline in the late 1960s.


Legacy

Stovall's work is currently found in family collections, Virginia-area museums such as the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the s ...
, and other museums such as the
Fenimore Art Museum The Fenimore Art Museum (formerly known as New York State Historical Association) is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York on the west side of Otsego Lake. Collection strengths include the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian ...
in Cooperstown, New York. The Daura Gallery at the
University of Lynchburg The University of Lynchburg, formerly Lynchburg College, is a private university associated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and located in Lynchburg, Virginia. It has approximately 2,800 undergraduate and graduate students. T ...
holds the largest public collection of Stovall’s work.


Exhibitions and Features

* An exhibition, "Queena Stovall, Artist of the Blue Ridge Piedmont," was mounted in 1974–1975 and traveled to Lynchburg College, in Lynchburg, Virginia, October 6–25, 1974; to the
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM) is the United States' first and the world's oldest continually operated museum dedicated to the preservation, collection, and exhibition of American folk art. Located just outside the histori ...
,
Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is ...
, January–March, 1975; and to the
New York State Historical Association The Fenimore Art Museum (formerly known as New York State Historical Association) is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York on the west side of Otsego Lake. Collection strengths include the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American India ...
, Cooperstown, New York, April–September, 1975. * Stovall's paintings were shown at the 1982 World's Fair in
Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...
* Stovall's paintings were shown in 1988 at the United States Embassy in
Paris, France Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. * Stovall's paintings were featured in the 1994 exhibition “Grandma Moses’ Southern Sisters: Queena Stovall and Clementine Hunter” at the Theatre Art Galleries in
High Point, North Carolina High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph, Davidson, and Forsyth counties. High Point is North Carolina's only city that ...
. * A major exhibition of Stovall's work, featuring 44 of her 49 paintings and titled "Inside Looking Out, The Art of Queena Stovall," was mounted by curators at the Daura Gallery in 2018 and traveled to the
Virginia Historical Society The Virginia Museum of History and Culture founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history. It is a private, n ...
in Richmond, Virginia. * Stovall was featured in the 2019 exhibit ''Memory Painting: Harriet French Turner and Queena Stovall'' at the
Taubman Museum of Art The Taubman Museum of Art, formerly the Art Museum of Western Virginia, is an art museum in downtown Roanoke, Virginia, United States. It was designed by architect Randall Stout. History In 1947, the Roanoke chapter of the American Association ...
.


Other Media

* The 1983 film “Queena Stovall: Life’s Narrow Space” was produced by Jack Ofield. * Stovall's work was featured the book "The Art of Queena Stovall: Images of Country Life (American Material Culture and Folklife" by Claudine Weatherford in 1986 * In conjunction with the exhibit "Inside Looking Out, the Art of Queena Stovall," Daura Gallery curators Dcompiled a wrote a book with the same title.


Cultural

* In 2010 Stovall was posthumously honored as one of the Library of Virginia's "
Virginia Women in History Virginia Women in History was an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honored Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation. The program began in 2000 under the aegis of th ...
" for her contributions to
folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...
. * In 2017 the
Virginia Department of Historic Resources The Virginia Department of Historic Resources is the State Historic Preservation Office for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The agency maintains the Virginia Landmarks Register (the first step for properties and districts in Virginia seeking list ...
approved a historic marker in her honor, to be erected near the farm where she spent 35 years of her life, the Wigwam. It was erected in March, 2018.


References


Further reading

* .


External links

*
Stovall's biography
at the
Library of Virginia The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stovall, Queena People from Amherst County, Virginia 1880s births 1980 deaths American women painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists Painters from Virginia