Donald Evans

Donald Evans 1945 Morristown, New Jersey - 1977 Amsterdam (Netherlands) Donald Evans was born in 1945 in Morristown, New Jersey. He studied at Cornell University in New York and then worked in Manhattan as a draftsman in the architectural office of Richard Meier. In 1971, Donald Evans began to produce his small-format stamp pictures, for which he became famous. In just six years, until his death in 1977, he created his own little world in stamp-sized pictures, Artistamps, full of charm and wit. Artistamps - miniature works of art In art history, the term "artistamp" has become an established term for "artist's stamp", i.e. artist's stamps, whereby these are not stamps designed by artists or even commissioned art for official franking for postal delivery, but rather fictitious designs in the form of the stamp without any legitimizing intention - little pictures in stamp format, which are often of an ironic, exotic, humorous or erotic nature. Donald Evans is considered a much respected and collected master of this stamp art with an amazing exhibition history in renowned museums worldwide. Dadaist Raoul Hausmann once pasted a stamp-sized self-portrait on a postcard he sent out in 1919. The American Fluxus artist Robert Watts also created a miniseries of fake stamps in 1961. Other artists over time followed suit, making it an art genre in its own right. Invented Stamps from Fictional Countries Donald Evans draws and watercolors or prints stamps from countries he invents. Detailed and imaginative, he invents countries for which he designs meaningful motifs, denominations, emblems and weaves them into his creations. Donald Evans lists all his stamps of fictitious countries in a "Catalogue of the World", which is laid out in the style of a classic stamp collection. Donald Evans also travels the world himself during his short life, living in rented apartments or with friends, his small-format art always in his luggage. Exhibitions worldwide The delicacy and richness of thought of the small pictures may explain the interest of the international art world, with which, after the artist's death, exhibitions were held worldwide featuring the works of Donald Evans. In addition, in 1980 the publication "The World of Donald Evans" by Willy Eisenhart appears, which makes Donald Evans oeuvre widely known. In 1977 the Museum of Modern Art in New York shows him in the group exhibition "Maps", in which Christo, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, James Rosenquist, among others, also participate. In 1979, exhibitions take place at the Denver Art Museum as well as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. 1980-1982, a traveling exhibition conceived by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam travels the world. 1995 Donald Evans is shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Kamakura, Japan. In 1997, the City Art Center in Edinburgh, Scotland, hosts a show of the small fine works. Donald Evans' life comes to a tragically early end when he dies in a fire at his apartment building in Amsterdam on April 29, 1977.