Nancy Spero

The work of Nancy Spero is an extended examination of our origins, of the license and lawlessness of laughter and of women. Her entire opus writes large what Baudelaire and Rabelais only hinted at - that women have always been the laughing side, that women have a stake in laughter's indissoluble and essential relation to freedom.

Sheela-na-Gig, a Celtic goddess of fertility and destruction, smiles wryly at the viewer as she reaches behind her legs to display an enormous vagina. In the work done for the present exhibition, Spero has Sheela link arms with Wilma, an aboriginal fertility goddess, in a comic chorus line.

About the Artist:
Nancy Spero was born in Cleveland in 1926. After receiving a B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949, she attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Atelier Andre Lhote in Paris. She lives and works in New York City. A monograph on her work appeared in the "Phaidon Contemporary Artists" series in 1996.

Introductory Essay by Jo Anna Isaak / Pictures from the Exhibition / List of Works / Excerpts of Essays included in the Catalog / History of the Exhibition / How to order a print copy of the catalog / About the Curator / Website Credits