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)
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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