Las Meninas
2019
Simone Leigh
Simone Leigh (American, b. 1967)
Contemporary Art
Las Meninas, 2019. Simone Leigh (American, b. 1967). Terracotta, steel, raffia, porcelain; overall: 182.9 x 213.4 x 152.4 cm (72 x 84 x 60 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.175 © 2019 Simone Leigh. All rights reserved. Las Meninas draws on traditions throughout global art and culture to address issues surrounding the female body, race, beauty, and community. The work’s skirted form conjures figures from the Spanish Golden Age painting Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velazquez, apparel worn in the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition candomblé, and Mousgoum buildings in Cameroon. The white-glazed terracotta torso, alluding to sacred and secular traditions of body painting, leads to a faceless head, incorporating both figuration and abstraction. The hollow face is surrounded by dozens of small porcelain flowers.
- Maker/Artist
- Leigh, Simone
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Formatted Medium
- Terracotta, steel, raffia, porcelain
- Medium
- terracotta, steel, raffia, porcelain
- Dimensions
- Overall: 182.9 x 213.4 x 152.4 cm (72 x 84 x 60 in.)
- Departments
- Contemporary Art
- Accession Number
- 2019.175
- Credit Line
- Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller
- Exhibitions
- Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021, <em>TEFAF New York Spring 2019</em>. Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York (March 3-7, 2019)
- Rights Statement
- Copyrighted undefined
- Museum Location
- 229A Contemporary
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