Sheela and Wilma

Artist Nancy Spero (1926 Cleveland - 2009 Manhattan)

Object typePrint
Medium Handprinted collage on paper
Dimensions
50,8 × 279,4 cm
SignatureSign. und dat. rechts unten: Spero 85
Inventory number12365
Location Belvedere 21
Credit LineAnkauf von der Galerie Lelong, New York
In her artistic practice, Nancy Spero repeatedly reflects on the struggles and demands of women throughout human history. In a series of works, she draws on a visual universe she has assembled, which includes mythological motifs and religious icons as well as media imagery from the second half of the twentieth century. Among these are images of deities, dancers, and models, as well as the wounded and the dying. From the early 1980s onward, Spero became deeply engaged with the figures Sheela-na-gig and Wilma- one a Celtic goddess, the other a prehistoric African motif- both of which symbolize motherhood and fertility but also destruction. Spero understands them as hieroglyphs that visually convey complex roles, realities, and attributions associated with womanhood. On a friezelike horizontal band, Sheela and Wilma meet in a timeless encounter.

Untitled (Hermitage Cats)