The Bed
Image courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery
Object Label
Through a poetic Black feminist approach, Lorna Simpson explores the limitations of respite and retreat in this felt-based work. The photographs of empty hotel beds, framed by open doorways, capture a contradictory state of security and vulnerability, which the artist echoes in text on the adjacent panel. In suggesting, rather than representing, the body, Simpson invokes a sense of intimacy and pleasure that might be interrupted by the racialized gaze.
Caption
Lorna Simpson American, born 1960. The Bed, 1995, reprinted 2016. Serigraph on felt, panels a-d: 35 9/16 × 22 1/16 × 3/16 in. (90.3 × 56 × 0.5 cm) panel e: 7 1/2 × 6 × 3/16 in. (19.1 × 15.2 × 0.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift from the collection of Peggy Jacobs Bader in honor of Anne Pasternak and Lorna Simpson, 2019.3a-e. (Photo: Image courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery, CUR.2019.3a-e_Simpson_SeanKellyGallery_photograph.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
The Bed
Date
1995, reprinted 2016
Medium
Serigraph on felt
Classification
Dimensions
panels a-d: 35 9/16 × 22 1/16 × 3/16 in. (90.3 × 56 × 0.5 cm) panel e: 7 1/2 × 6 × 3/16 in. (19.1 × 15.2 × 0.5 cm)
Signatures
Signed and titled verso
Credit Line
Gift from the collection of Peggy Jacobs Bader in honor of Anne Pasternak and Lorna Simpson
Accession Number
2019.3a-e
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