Great Mother Birth
INV-2846painting
Date
1962
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
173.4 × 111.2 cm (68 1/4 × 43 3/4 in.); 179.1 × 116.9 × 6.1 cm (70 1/2 × 46 × 2 3/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of the Nancy Spero and Leon Golub Foundation for the Arts
While living in Paris from 1959 to 1964, Nancy Spero embarked on a series of Black Paintings, including Great Mother Birth. These labor-intensive canvases took months to complete as Spero repainted and stained surfaces with turpentine-soaked rags. In this workthe profile and torso of a four-breasted woman emerges from an atmospheric field of darkness blended with muted pinks, browns, and grays. As it shifts between revealing and concealing, the painting foregrounds a commanding female presence, which re-mained central to Spero’s work for the rest of her career.
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