{
"data": {
"id": 161732,
"accession_number": "2000.89",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "The Shape of Things from the \"Africa\" series, 1993. Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953). Gelatin silver print, triptych; image: 50 x 49.6 cm (19 11/16 x 19 1/2 in.); paper: 50.2 x 50.2 cm (19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2000.89. \u00a9 Carrie Mae Weems",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Shape of Things from the \"Africa\" series",
"creation_date": "1993",
"creation_date_earliest": 1993,
"creation_date_latest": 1993,
"artists_tags": [
"female",
"Black American Artists"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "gelatin silver print, triptych",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1951-Present",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 50 x 49.6 cm (19 11/16 x 19 1/2 in.); Paper: 50.2 x 50.2 cm (19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.5,
"height_inch": 19,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.496,
"width_inch": 19,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5
},
"paper": {
"height": 0.502,
"height_inch": 19,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.502,
"width_inch": 19,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Carrie Mae Weems",
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 179137,
"title": "Signs of Life: Recent Photography Acquisitions",
"description": "Signs of Life: Recent Photography Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 2003-April 7, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2003-11-22T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 181802,
"title": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 230626,
"title": "Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video",
"description": "Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video. Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (organizer) (September 21, 2012-January 13, 2013); Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (February 2-May 19, 2013); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 30-September 29, 2013); Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford, CA (October 16, 2013-January 5, 2014); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (January 24-May 14, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2012-09-21T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"description": "Since the late 1970s, Carrie Mae Weems has challenged society\u2019s stereotypes about gender, race, and class through photographs and texts she often assembles with objects into compelling installations. During her first trip to Africa in 1993, she photographed the vestiges of slavery along the coast of Ghana and Senegal as well as the entry ways, towers, and corridors of Djenn\u00e9, Mali, one of the oldest urban sites in Western Africa. She was particularly taken by the city\u2019s distinctive, ancient architecture and the buildings\u2019 ability to suggest gender specificity - \"male and female space.\" In this summary work from Weems\u2019s Africa Series, she flanked a detail image of a mosque and its protruding towers with two close-up views of sensual entrances and openings on the fa\u00e7ades of granaries. She skillfully created both a beautiful formal record of a physical place and its culture and a stimulating narrative that evokes identity and human interaction.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79984841"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Sims, Lowery Stokes. The persistence of geometry: form, content, and culture in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.",
"page_number": "no. 135, p. 124",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Delmez, Kathryn E. Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video. Nashville, TN: Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2012.",
"page_number": "ex. cat. no. 92., p. 122",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2000.89",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 161732,
"creators": [
{
"id": 38920,
"description": "Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1953",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2000-09-18T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1993,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1993",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:52:20.174000"
}
}