Bessie Harvey (1929-1994)

Description: Harvey could see “souls” in trees and branches waiting to be unleashed. She had the ability to free these souls. Her work is very powerful.

Bessie Harvey (born Bessie Ruth White on October 11, 1929, died 1994) was an American artist best known for her sculptures constructed out of found objects, primarily pieces of found wood. Harvey was the seventh of thirteen children born to Homer and Rosie Mae White. At the age of fourteen she married Charles Harvey, from whom she separated in her early twenties and relocated independently to Alcoa, Tennessee. In 1977 Harvey began working at Blount Memorial Hospital where she first began to exhibit her artwork. In 1995 Harvey was included in the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work "Cross Bearers" was subsequently purchased by the museum for its permanent collection. Work by Bessie Harvey may be found in the permanent collections of the Knoxville Museum of Art and the American Folk Art Museum, New York.