MDID - Wigs (Portfolio)

Accession Number:

16_00070

Creator:

Lorna Simpson ( , b. 1960)

Creator:

Simpson, Lorna

Classification:

Prints

Course:

Obler AH3165

Culture:

American

Description:

Her multipart work Wigs (Portfolio) is composed of lithographs, printed on felt, that depict hairpieces purchased in Brooklyn set alongside narrative fragments ranging from a psychoanalyst's interview with the mother of an avowed fetishist to lines lifted from William and Ellen Craft's 1860 slave narrative, which describes how they disguised themselves in order to escape from bondage. Simpson's wigs suggest that the look of black femininity might be altered to preserve the sensate self, a combination of visual ruse and tactile identity hinted at by the richly textured surfaces on which the images are printed. In this work it is as if the conditions affecting black women can only come into view when the body and the presumptions that accompany it are absented from the field of vision. [Butler, Cornelia ; Schwartz, Alexandra; Modern Women: women artists at the Museum of Modern Art, 1st ed., 2010, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010 (9780870707711) pg. 491]

Location:

New York, United States - Museum of Modern Art, (repository)

Material:

lithographs on felt, lithographed felt text panels

Measurement:

182.9 x 411.5 cm ()

Object Date:

1994 (creation)

Object Type:

prints; planographic prints; lithographs

Style Period:

Twentieth Century - Twentieth Century

Subject:

African American Art; Costume, Accessories, Hair accessories, Wigs; United States; States; New York; Brooklyn

Technique:

felt; lithography

Title:

Wigs (Portfolio)

View:

General View: Full View

WorkID:

18235

Identifier:

18235_16_00070.jpg

Collection:

FAAH Collection

Record created:

Feb. 10, 2016

Last modified:

Feb. 10, 2016

Wigs (Portfolio)

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