Artwork Description
Beverly McIver – Dear God
Dimensions: 30 x 30″ unframed
Year: 2009
Medium: oil on canvas
Beverly McIver began her Dear God series of paintings on the day Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. He sent a prayer of gratitude into the world for the changes that she perceived were being made toward racial equality. McIver depicts herself in black face with a red, straight wig, wearing an upbeat floral-patterned dress. This combination of hope, while trying to fit into a racially divided world recurs throughout the Dear God paintings. The Dear God paintings are a pivotal part of McIver’s nationally touring museum retrospective titled Beverly McIver: Full Circle.
A Greensboro native most well known for her diverse and at times confronting self portraits, McIver’s work is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the NCCU Museum of Art, the Asheville Museum of Art, The Crocker Art Museum, the Nelson Fine Arts Center Art Museum at Arizona State University, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Cameron Art Museum and the Mint Museum as well as significant corporate and private collections.
McIver is currently the Esbenshade Professor of the Practice in Studio Arts At Duke University. She was the Suntrust Endowed Chair Professor of Art at North Carolina Central University, 2007-2014. Prior to this appointment, McIver taught at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. for twelve years, Duke University, North Carolina State University, and North Carolina Central University. She has also held residencies at many of the nation’s leading artist communities, including YADDO, the Headland Center for the Arts, Djerassi, and Penland School of Arts and Crafts. She has served on the board at Penland, and currently serves on the board of directors at YADDO in Saratoga Springs, NY.