{
    "data": {
        "id": 161715,
        "accession_number": "2000.75.a",
        "share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
        "tombstone": "Man Spirit Mask: Man, 1999. Willie Cole (American, b. 1955), Co-published by RCIPP and Alexander & Bonin Publishing, New York, NY. Embossed photoetching hand-colored with lemon juice; sheet: 99.8 x 67.5 cm (39 5/16 x 26 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2000.75.a",
        "current_location": null,
        "title": "Man Spirit Mask: Man",
        "creation_date": "1999",
        "creation_date_earliest": 1999,
        "creation_date_latest": 1999,
        "artists_tags": [
            "male",
            "Black American Artists"
        ],
        "culture": [
            "America"
        ],
        "technique": "embossed photoetching hand-colored with lemon juice",
        "support_materials": [
            {
                "description": "Somerset Antique White Paper",
                "watermarks": []
            }
        ],
        "department": "Prints",
        "collection": "PR - Etching",
        "type": "Print",
        "measurements": "Sheet: 99.8 x 67.5 cm (39 5/16 x 26 9/16 in.)",
        "dimensions": {
            "sheet": {
                "height": 0.998,
                "height_inch": 39,
                "height_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
                "width": 0.675,
                "width_inch": 26,
                "width_inch_fraction": 0.5625
            }
        },
        "state_of_the_work": null,
        "edition_of_the_work": "40 numbered impressions; 2 PP; 2 RI (Rutger's Impression) 1 Shop proof (Galamander Press)",
        "copyright": null,
        "inscriptions": [],
        "exhibitions": {
            "current": [
                {
                    "id": 441598,
                    "title": "Artlens Exhibition 2019",
                    "description": "<i>Artlens Exhibition 2019</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer).",
                    "opening_date": "2019-06-11T04:00:00"
                }
            ],
            "legacy": [
                {
                    "description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (1/26/2014 - 5/18/2014); \"Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings\"",
                    "opening_date": "2014-01-26T00:00:00"
                }
            ]
        },
        "provenance": [],
        "find_spot": null,
        "related_works": [],
        "former_accession_numbers": [],
        "did_you_know": "The steam iron is a personal symbol for this artist and it appears in many of his works.",
        "early_education_description": null,
        "artlens_description": null,
        "description": "Cole created a dialogue between blacks\u2019 ancestral home in Africa and their forced resettlement in America using his self-portrait and a favorite item, the steam iron. In <em>Man</em>, the first panel of this triptych, a photograph of Cole\u2019s face is covered with the embossed pattern of the steam holes of a Proctor Silex iron, a reference to the traditional tribal practice of skin scarification and branding for social identification. In <em>Mask</em> the iron resembles a face and is superimposed atop an inverted image of Cole\u2019s visage; in tribal ritual a mask contains the spirit while the persona of the mask hides the wearer. In <em>Spirit and Mask</em>, irons resemble African tribal war shields and mimic the shape of slave ships as seen from above. Irons and ironing boards are also reminders that generations of African American women have labored as domestics.",
        "external_resources": {
            "wikidata": [
                "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79984806"
            ],
            "internet_archive": []
        },
        "citations": [],
        "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2000.75.a",
        "images": {},
        "alternate_images": [],
        "creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
        "image_credit": null,
        "sketchfab_id": null,
        "sketchfab_url": null,
        "gallery_donor_text": null,
        "athena_id": 161715,
        "creators": [
            {
                "id": 23893,
                "description": "Willie Cole (American, b. 1955)",
                "extent": null,
                "qualifier": null,
                "role": "artist",
                "biography": null,
                "name_in_original_language": null,
                "birth_year": "1955",
                "use_in_caption": true,
                "include_extent": false,
                "weight": 1
            },
            {
                "id": 67730,
                "description": "Co-published by RCIPP and Alexander & Bonin Publishing, New York, NY",
                "extent": null,
                "qualifier": null,
                "role": "published by",
                "biography": null,
                "name_in_original_language": null,
                "use_in_caption": true,
                "include_extent": false,
                "weight": 2
            }
        ],
        "legal_status": "accessioned",
        "accession_date": "2000-09-18T00:00:00",
        "sortable_date": 1999,
        "date_added_to_oa": null,
        "date_text": "1999",
        "collapse_artists": true,
        "on_loan": false,
        "recently_acquired": false,
        "record_type": "part",
        "conservation_statement": null,
        "has_conservation_images": false,
        "cover_accession_number": "2000.75",
        "is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
        "impression": null,
        "alternate_titles": [],
        "is_highlight": false,
        "updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:52:20.062000"
    }
}