id: 369885
accession number: 2019.175
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.175
updated: 2021-05-07 09:06:13.021000
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
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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
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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.)
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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-
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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
Barliant, Claire. As We Were Saying: Art and Identity in the Age of "Post." New York: Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, 2014. Exhibition Brochure.
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Simone Leigh. New York, N.Y.: Luhring Augustine, 2019. Exhibition Catalogue.
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Rhodes-Pitts, Sharife. "Simone Leigh: For Her Own Pleasure and Edification." In The Hugo Boss Prize 2018. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2018.
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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: pp. 222-227
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Trigger: Gender As a Tool and a Weapon. Edited by Johanna Burton and Natalie Bell. New York: New Museum, 2017. Exhibition Catalogue.
page number: pp. 108-111
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Elderton, Louisa, and Rebecca Morrill, eds. Vitamin C: Clay + Ceramic in Contemporary Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2017.
page number: pp. 160-63
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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. Exhibition Catalogue.
page number: p. 138
url:
Leigh, Simone. "The Encounter." In Fired Up! Ready to Go!: Finding Beauty, Demanding Equity : an African American Life in Art : the Collections of Peggy Cooper Cafritz, eds. Peggy Cooper Cafritz and Charmaine Picard,168 - 171. New York: Rizzoli Electa, 2018.
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IMAGES