Evan Leroy Lindquist was born May 23, 1936, in Salina, Kansas, to the late Elmer and Linnette Lindquist. He lived in Odessa, Texas until 1945, then moved Emporia, Kansas, until 1960. Working continuously as a calligraphic and graphic artist, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1958 from Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University) in Emporia and in 1963, with a Master of Fine Arts from State University of Iowa.

He immediately began teaching art in Jonesboro at Arkansas State University, where he established the area of printmaking. For the next 40 years, he worked dual careers as an exemplary teacher and productive artist. During his career, before and after retiring in 2003, he participated in more than 60 solo exhibitions and received more than 80 awards in 300 competitive exhibitions. His prints can be found in over 70 public institutions and permanent collections and museums worldwide. These include the Albertine in Vienna, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Dublin Museum of Modern Art, Memphis Art Museum, Museo Espanol del Arte Contemporaneo in Madrid, Uffizi in Florence, Whitney Museum in New York, and the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock with some 200 works by Lindquist in its permanent collections.

Awards include the ESU Distinguished Alumni Award (2004), Department of Arkansas Heritage Arts Councils Lifetime Achievement Award (2004), First Artist Laureate of the State of Arkansas (2012) and ASU Outstanding Faculty Member (1981). In 1996, a longtime dream was fulfilled when he founded the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition held annually at Bradbury Art Museum. Evan Lindquist died in Jonesboro, Arkansas on 18 December, 2023.