GALLERIES
While EVB painted throughout his life, his prime years were 1954 to 1964. He completed about a thousand paintings during this period. We have managed to obtain images for about 750 of them. Close to 600 of these are visible here.
The majority of the images are high-resolution scans of the original paintings and are extremely accurate. Many images, however, are casual photos or reproductions from 35mm slides. For these, lighting, focus and color may be problematic. In addition to being uneven in respect to image quality, the sequence is incomplete. But despite the deficiencies, these galleries give a view of the size and scope of EVB’s work unavailable until now. The desire to make that view available drove our decision to show whatever we had managed to collect, irrespective of quality. In some cases, problematic images may be all we ever have. While most of EVB’s paintings are in the hands of collectors and museums, many have never surfaced. We saved a few from imminent destruction. A number were stolen from the estate decades ago, and may never reappear. And there are a number of paintings in private hands that, after a half-century, are in need of restoration and preservation; if that work isn’t done, the pieces will suffer. So, as uneven as the quality is, we felt it would be best to show it all. The catalogue information includes image origin, which will allow the viewer to know if an image is accurate or in question.
In a handful of instances, where a date and/or number isn’t present on the face of the piece, we have attempted to interpolate the painting’s position in the chronology, based on style, color and content. Where this was done, it is noted in the catalog.
Copyright for the majority of EVB’s paintings, executed during the periods specified by the galleries, was passed to us by his estate. There are some exceptions, however. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center acquired one hundred EVB paintings as a group in the early 80s, and copyright for those paintings belongs to them. There were also a number of paintings gifted to museums by the estate, and in some of those cases, copyright was passed to the museum. Where we do not have copyright, images of the paintings have not been included.
Our objective in starting this website was to make EVB’s work more broadly available. Images from the site are now visible all over the internet. We love that. In addition, a number of the images you now see in these galleries were sent to us by people who wanted to contribute to what we’re doing. We love that too. We encourage any and all parties, private and institutional, to join this effort. If you are able to provide an image of a painting that is not presented here, or an improved image of a painting for which we have an imperfect one, please consider helping us preserve EVB’s legacy.
