Hieratic
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Caption
Nancy Spero American, 1926–2009. Hieratic, 1995. Hand stamped and painted monotype on paper, 95 3/4 x 19 3/4 in. (243.2 x 50.2cm). Brooklyn Museum, Alfred T. White Fund and Helen Babbott Sanders Fund, 1995.116. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1995.116_bw.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Hieratic
Date
1995
Medium
Hand stamped and painted monotype on paper
Classification
Dimensions
95 3/4 x 19 3/4 in. (243.2 x 50.2cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right: "Spero 95"
Credit Line
Alfred T. White Fund and Helen Babbott Sanders Fund
Accession Number
1995.116
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
What are Spero’s specific references and how has she rewritten their story?
Spero means to "construct a simultaneity of women through time." She said: "The history of women I envision is neither linear nor sequential. I try...to show that it all has reverberations for us today. And then it makes sense." In “Fertility Totem,” she reproduces image from Prehistoric, Ancient Greek, and Australian Aboriginal traditions including a woman masturbating with dildos as an act of bodily autonomy based on a kylix in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. “Hieratic” includes images of Egyptian goddesses including Nut, one of Spero's favorites. She often used this stamp of Nut with additional breasts, a nod to the she-wolf that raised Romulus and Remus, to emphasize her maternal and powerful role.I like this a lot. Tell me about it
Spero is known for reinterpreting ancient imagery, especially ancient images of women, to tell a story of empowerment. She studied ancient Egyptian art at museums in Chicago.One of her favorite figures from Egyptian mythology is the goddess Nut who you see printed repeatedly at the top of this banner. The form you see also incorporates the multi-breasted element from the Capitoline wolf, the wolf who raised Romulus and Remus in the Roman foundational myth.Spero viewed each of these figures as maternal, nurturing, and deeply archaic. One of her goals as an artist was to create what she called a "simultaneity of women."
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