We Radical Women Wanted a Black Revolution (for M.H.)
About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
Stacy Lynn Waddell sees her role and her work as part of an intergenerational conversation with other Black artists. This portrait of Maren Hassinger, an artist featured in the acclaimed Brooklyn Museum exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85, honors the legacy of Hassinger and her peers. The work also engages in contemporary discussions of memorialization, monuments, and the Black Lives Matter movement: Hassinger stands above an empty plinth that once supported a statue of Confederate General Beauregard. Her T-shirt sports the acronym for the title of the historic exhibition, which glows like a protest slogan against the complex, gold-leaf background.
Characterized by her use of gilding, fire, and alchemical processes, Waddell’s practice explores issues of personal experience, American culture, and history. Physical and material transformations are utilized in works that honor underrecognized African American figures, primarily in portraiture that parlays symbols of power and privilege into an examination of who is valued, remembered, and celebrated.
Object Label
Caption
Stacy Lynn Waddell American, born 1966. We Radical Women Wanted a Black Revolution (for M.H.), 2017. Composition gold and aluminum leaf with gouache, watercolor, acrylic, and Sumi ink on paper, 100 1/2 × 52 in. (255.3 × 132.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Contemporary Art Committee and purchased with funds given by Deborah Rechler, 2018.23. © artist or artist's estate
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Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Artist
Title
We Radical Women Wanted a Black Revolution (for M.H.)
Date
2017
Medium
Composition gold and aluminum leaf with gouache, watercolor, acrylic, and Sumi ink on paper
Classification
Dimensions
100 1/2 × 52 in. (255.3 × 132.1 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the Contemporary Art Committee and purchased with funds given by Deborah Rechler
Accession Number
2018.23
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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