Fertility Totem
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Caption
Nancy Spero American, 1926–2009. Fertility Totem, 1986. Hand-printed collage on paper, frame: 117 3/8 × 26 7/8 × 2 3/8 in. (298.1 × 68.3 × 6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of The Foundation, To-Life, Inc., 2008.83. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2008.83_PS9.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Fertility Totem
Date
1986
Medium
Hand-printed collage on paper
Classification
Dimensions
frame: 117 3/8 × 26 7/8 × 2 3/8 in. (298.1 × 68.3 × 6 cm)
Signatures
Signed and titled in graphite lower recto
Credit Line
Gift of The Foundation, To-Life, Inc.
Accession Number
2008.83
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.
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