Beverly Buchanan House Sculptures Charm at Independent Art Fair

Minutes into the Independent preview today, before crowds had made certain parts of the fair clogged to a crawl, collectors were already admiring Andrew Edlin Gallery’s booth devoted to Beverly Buchanan. A couple were chattering away in French, lavishing the artist’s outsider-like sculptures of houses with praise. “Incroyable,” one of them remarked.

Similar to sculptures in an acclaimed Brooklyn Museum survey, “Beverly Buchanan—Ruins and Rituals” (up through Sunday), the works look like small models of shacks that the artist, who died in 2015, saw in the American South. They’re rough around the edges in a way that evokes art made by children, with slats of wood placed together in idiosyncratic fashion.

There was particular interest in 7 Houses (1997), a row of houses displayed under an oil pastel drawing. Andrew Edlin was there explaining their significance in excitedly worded French. As if to preempt the inevitable question—can we buy just one?—he could joked, “It’s called 7 Houses. We can’t do 6 Houses.”