Miscegenated Family Album

Miscegenated Family Album

Lorraine O'GradyWW-1980-141517
1980·Sixteen silver dye bleach print diptychs, framed·Each: 67.3 × 95.3 cm (26 1/2 × 37 9/16 in.); 67.4 × 95.3 cm (26 1/2 × 37 1/2 in.); Each frame: 69.3 × 97 × 3.9 cm (27 1/4 × 38 3/16 × 1 1/2 in.)

<p>As an artist of African, Caribbean, and Irish descent, Lorraine O’Grady has mainly focused on representations of black female subjectivity, often through the lens of family, literary, and art-historical narratives. Her work combats the elimination of difference across a spectrum of social concerns, while championing the positive values of hybridization. <em>Miscegenated Family Album</em> is a series of diptychs, each containing an image of the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti paired with a corresponding image of the artist’s deceased sister, Devonia Evangeline O’Grady Allen, or members of their respective families. The physical resemblances between the individuals within any given diptych are sometimes startling. Both families, in fact, reflect the consequences of generations of cross-cultural exchange and interracial marriage.</p>

Catalogue

Year
1980
Dimensions
Each: 67.3 × 95.3 cm (26 1/2 × 37 9/16 in.); 67.4 × 95.3 cm (26 1/2 × 37 1/2 in.); Each frame: 69.3 × 97 × 3.9 cm (27 1/4 × 38 3/16 × 1 1/2 in.)

Artist

Lorraine O'Grady
Lorraine O'Grady

Photography

Lorraine O'Grady was an American artist, writer, translator, and critic. Working in conceptual art and performance art that integrates photo and video installation, she explored the cultural construction of identity – particularly that of Black female subjectivity – as shaped by the experience of diaspora and hybridity. O'Grady studied at Wellesley College and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop before becoming an artist at the age of 45. Regarding the purpose of art, O'Grady said in 2016: "I think art's first goal is to remind us that we are human, whatever that is. I suppose the politics in my art could be to remind us that we are all human."

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Miscegenated Family Album (Worldly Princesses), L: Nefertiti’s daughter, Merytaten; R: Devonia’s daughter, Kimberley

Miscegenated Family Album (Worldly Princesses), L: Nefertiti’s daughter, Merytaten; R: Devonia’s daughter, Kimberley

1980 · Silver dye bleach prints, printed 2008

WW-1980-M146791
Miscegenated Family Album (Ceremonial Occasions I), L: Devonia as Matron of Honor; R: Nefertiti performing a lustration

Miscegenated Family Album (Ceremonial Occasions I), L: Devonia as Matron of Honor; R: Nefertiti performing a lustration

1980 · Silver dye bleach prints, printed 2008

WW-1980-M146745
Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire)

Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire)

1980 · Fourteen gelatin silver prints, printed 2014

WW-1980-M108218
Miscegenated Family Album (Motherhood), L: Nefertiti; R: Devonia reading to Candace and Edward, Jr.

Miscegenated Family Album (Motherhood), L: Nefertiti; R: Devonia reading to Candace and Edward, Jr.

1980 · Silver dye bleach prints, printed 2008

WW-1980-M146744

Record

Verified by WattsOS
Year
1980
Dimensions
Each: 67.3 × 95.3 cm (26 1/2 × 37 9/16 in.); 67.4 × 95.3 cm (26 1/2 × 37 1/2 in.); Each frame: 69.3 × 97 × 3.9 cm (27 1/4 × 38 3/16 × 1 1/2 in.)
Watts ID
WW-1980-141517

Source

Source
aic
Status
verified

Artist

Lorraine O'Grady

Lorraine O'Grady

Photography

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