id: 160326 accession number: 1998.186 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1998.186 updated: 2025-03-29 11:19:06.812000 Backdrops, Circa 1940s, 1998. Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960). Screenprint on two felt panels; left: 66.2 x 42.7 x 0.4 cm (26 1/16 x 16 13/16 x 3/16 in.); right: 66.1 x 42.7 x 0.4 cm (26 x 16 13/16 x 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dr. Gerard and Phyllis Seltzer Fund, 1998.186. © Lorna Simpson, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth title: Backdrops, Circa 1940s title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1998 creation date earliest: 1998 creation date latest: 1998 current location: creditline: Dr. Gerard and Phyllis Seltzer Fund copyright: © Lorna Simpson, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth --- culture: America technique: Screenprint on two felt panels department: Prints collection: PR - Screenprint type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960) - artist Lorna Simpson uses photography to invert cultural stereotypes about race, class, and gender by decoding and reordering visual and verbal languages. Born in Brooklyn, she began taking documentary photographs throughout the United States and abroad in the late 1970s. While in graduate school at the University of California, San Diego (M.F.A., 1985), Simpson began to question the objectivity of such images and examine how these documents are generally perceived. In the mid-1980s, Simpson garnered critical acclaim for her series of large-scale black-and-white portraits of Black men and women. Photographed from behind and inserted into stark, flat backgrounds, Simpson juxtaposed her anonymous portraits with poetic text fragments to reveal underlying racial and gender stereotypes in American culture. In 1990, Simpson became the first African-American woman to present a one-person exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. --- measurements: Left: 66.2 x 42.7 x 0.4 cm (26 1/16 x 16 13/16 x 3/16 in.); Right: 66.1 x 42.7 x 0.4 cm (26 x 16 13/16 x 3/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: edition 3/35 support materials: inscriptions: inscription: numbered 3/35 and signed in graphite on verso translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: From Rembrandt to Rauschenberg: Recently Acquired Prints opening date: 2000-09-17T00:00:00 From Rembrandt to Rauschenberg: Recently Acquired Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17-November 26, 2000). title: Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings opening date: 2014-01-24T00:00:00 Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 24-May 18, 2014). title: Photographs in Ink opening date: 2022-11-19T05:00:00 Photographs in Ink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 20, 2022-April 2, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 229): April 13, 2009 - September 11, 2009.', 'opening_date': '2009-04-13T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES