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Lorna Simpson , b. Aug 13, 1960

Screen 4

1986
73 1/2 in. x 60 in. (186.69 cm x 152.4 cm)

Medium and Support: Wooden accordion screen, gelatin silver prints mounted on panels, vinyl letters

Credit Line: Museum purchase

Accession Number: 2000.83

Commentary

Lorna Simpson’s synthesis of text and image is both subtle and provocative. Like many of her signature works, the Addison’s Screen 4 pairs a partially obscured figure with fragmented and ambiguous text, challenging our expectations of identity and narrative. Cropping the subject, whose face is unseen, Simpson withholds the identity of this African American woman and in doing so makes us sharply aware of how we examine, interpret, and assess others. While the faceless subject appears to be silenced, the artist gives her a voice through the accompanying text. Maintaining anonymity and resisting identification as “other,” the subject, as the text indicates, is “no more exotic than the sparse room she poses in.”

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

New Work: Recent Additions to the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/21/2001 - 7/31/2001
Defying Distinction: Works from the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/12/2002 - 4/14/2002
Physical Presence: Photographs from the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/16/2004 - 3/21/2004
In Focus: 75 Years of Collecting American Photography Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/28/2006 - 7/31/2006
The Discerning Eye: Five Perspectives on the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/4/2007 - 12/30/2007
Inside, Outside, Upstairs, Downstairs: The Addison Anew Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/7/2010 - 3/27/2011
Pressure Points [Phillips Academy Art 300] Addison Gallery of American Art , 5/30/2012 - 7/31/2012
Collection Intervention: Ellen Gallagher’s DeLuxe Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/17/2015 - 5/17/2015
Seen and Unseen Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/1/2017 - 12/31/2017
To Make Visible: Art and Activism, 1980–2000 Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/16/2020 - 1/3/2021
Just Above Midtown: 1974 to the Present The Museum of Modern Art , 10/9/2022 - 2/18/2023
Paraventi: Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries Fondazione Prada , 10/25/2023 - 2/22/2024

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