Simpson, Lorna
American (1960-)

TITLE ON OBJECT: Counting

1991
photogravure with silkscreen
187.0 x 96.0 cm.
Museum Purchase
95:2875:0001

NON-GEH NUMBER: 52/60

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: Mulligan, Therese & Wooters, David. --Photography from 1839 to today: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.-- Cologne: Taschen, 1999. p. 721.//

EXHIBITION HISTORY:
"Recent Acquisitions: Lorna Simpson", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - Potter Peristyle, January 15 -.//
"New Treasures: Recent Acquisitions to the Collections", US, NY, Rochester February 20 - June 6, 1999.//

INSCRIPTION: recto-(in pencil) "52/60 Counting" (signed) "Lorna Simpson 91"

copyright, Lorna Simpson

NOTES: Catalogued 1/96, DZ. Signed and numbered in an edition of 60, this print is # 52. Each printed on Somerset satin white paper at Barnstead Studio in New York. The print is Simpson's first. "Since the late 1980s, Lorna Simpson has been one of America's most influential artists, contributing to a recent renaissance in African American art. A primary theme of her work is an unflinching analysis of race and gender relations. In particular, Simpson examines the cultural role of Arican American women in both the past and the present. This can be readily seen in an extraordinarily large photog- ravure entitled COUNTING, from 1991. Here, Simpson stacks three seemingly unrelated images, simulating in scale the upright stance of the human body. To emphasize this orentation, a cropped portrait of Simpson herself tops the work; elimination of expressive facial features such as eyes turns this figure into a universal symbol of all African American women. To the right, hours and time of day refer to irregular, but all-consuming, work shifts. Building on this element of time, Simpson presents a Southern smokehouse used as slave quarters. Historical time and material quantities are collapsed into a harrowing equation of oppression." [Therese Mulligan, 1/96]