Las Meninas

2019

Las Meninas, 2019. Simone Leigh (American, b. 1967). Steel, raffia; overall: 121.3 x 208.3 x 148 cm (47 3/4 x 82 x 58 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.175.b © 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.