id: 369885
accession number: 2019.175
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.175
updated: 2022-09-10 12:11:39.803000
Las Meninas, 2019. Simone Leigh (American, b. 1967). Terracotta, steel, raffia, porcelain; overall: 182.9 x 213.4 x 152.4 cm (72 x 84 x 60 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.175 © 2019 Simone Leigh. All rights reserved.
title: Las Meninas
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 2019
creation date earliest: 2019
creation date latest: 2019
current location: 229A Contemporary
creditline: Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller
copyright: © 2019 Simone Leigh. All rights reserved.
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culture: America
technique: Terracotta, steel, raffia, porcelain
department: Contemporary Art
collection: CONTEMP - Sculpture
type: Sculpture
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Simone Leigh (American, b. 1967)
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measurements: Overall: 182.9 x 213.4 x 152.4 cm (72 x 84 x 60 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021
opening date: 2021-04-20T04:00:00
Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* TEFAF New York Spring 2019. Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York (March 3-7, 2019)
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PROVENANCE
(Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 2019
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 2019-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
The hollow face is surrounded by dozens of small porcelain flowers.
digital description:
Las Meninas draws on traditions throughout global art and culture to address issues surrounding the female body, race, beauty, and community. The work’s skirted form conjures figures from the Spanish Golden Age painting Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velazquez, apparel worn in the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition candomblé, and Mousgoum buildings in Cameroon. The white-glazed terracotta torso, alluding to sacred and secular traditions of body painting, leads to a faceless head, incorporating both figuration and abstraction.
wall description:
In Las Meninas Simone Leigh draws on traditions throughout global art and culture, conjuring associations related to the female body, racial identity, beauty, and community. The work's skirted form evokes figures from the Spanish Golden Age painting Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velazquez, apparel worn in the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition condomblé, and Mousgoum buildings in Cameroon. The white-glazed terracotta torso, alluding to sacred and secular traditions of body painting, leads to a faceless head, incorporating both figuration and abstraction.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Simone Leigh. New York, N.Y.: Luhring Augustine, 2019.
page number:
url:
Rhodes-Pitts, Sharife. "Simone Leigh: For Her Own Pleasure and Edification." In The Hugo Boss Prize 2018. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2018.
page number:
url:
Leigh, Simone. "Portfolio: Simone Leigh." In Public Servants: Art and the Crises of the Common Good, edited by Johanna Burton, Shannon Jackson, and Dominic Willsdon, 222-227. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016.
page number:
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Conde, Maryse, Jota Mombaca, and Peggy Piesche. We Don't Need Another Hero:10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Berlin: Distanz, 2018.
page number: Mentioned p. 138
url:
Trigger: Gender As a Tool and a Weapon. Edited by Johanna Burton and Natalie Bell. New York: New Museum, 2017.
page number: Mentioned pp. 108-111
url:
Elderton, Louisa, and Rebecca Morrill, eds. Vitamin C: Clay + Ceramic in Contemporary Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2017.
page number: Mentioned pp. 160-63
url:
Cafritz, Peggy Cooper, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, and Charmaine Picard. Fired Up! Ready to Go!: Finding Beauty, Demanding Equity : an African American Life in Art : the Collections of Peggy Cooper Cafritz. 2018.
page number: Referenced p. 169
url:
Fellah, Nadiah Rivera. “Simone Leigh: The artist's Las Meninas, acquired last year, invites examination of the relationship between artist, subject, and viewer.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 4 (Fall 2020): 14-15.
page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 14-15.
url:
"New Take on the New: A comprehensive reinstallation of the galleries of contemporary art offers fresh viewpoints on the art of our time.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 2 (Spring 2021): Cover, 4-9.
page number: Reproduced: P. 9; Mentioned: P. 4, 8.
url:
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IMAGES