Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_001_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_002_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_003_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_004_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_005_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_006_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_007_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_008_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_009_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_010_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_011_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_012_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_013_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, February 16, 2008 through October 19, 2008 (Image: DIG_E2008_Amer_014_PS2.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2008)
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End
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Ghada Amer: Love Has No End
Although she is internationally known for her exquisite abstract canvases embroidered with erotic motifs, Ghada Amer is a multimedia artist whose varied body of work is unified by a continuity of ideological and aesthetic concerns. The submission of women to the tyranny of domestic life, the celebration of female sexuality and pleasure, the incomprehensibility of love, the absurdity of war and violence, and an overall quest for formal beauty constitute the territory that she mines in her art.
Amer was born in Cairo in 1963, moved to France at age eleven, studied fine arts in Nice and Paris, and today lives in New York City. These changes of geography and language are reflected in her artistic output. While the artist’s diverse body of work reflects the differences between her Islamic upbringing and the models of behavior that apply in Western culture, it addresses problems such as the oppression of women that she sees as universal and prevalent in all cultures. Her painting is influenced by the idea of shifting meanings and the appropriation of the languages of abstraction and expressionism—two artistic styles historically associated with Western white male artists. Her prints, drawings, and sculptures question gender stereotypes, her garden designs invoke gardening as a specifically “feminine” activity like embroidery, and her recent installations address the current tumultuous political climate.
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End is organized in a chronological and thematic manner that traces the stages of Amer’s career over the past two decades. The exhibition begins with her earliest sketchbooks, which illustrate the genesis of her ideas about patterning and embroidery. It goes on to present a series of works from the artist’s early “domestic series” depicting women performing daily chores, followed by works examining fairy tales and popular stories that perpetuate gender clichés. A section is devoted to numerous powerful works concerning world politics and recent anti-war pieces. The exhibition concludes with a survey of the artist’s iconic erotic paintings for which she is most famous.
Maura Reilly
Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
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December 7, 2007
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, the first major U.S. retrospective of the renowned artist’s work, will feature some fifty pieces from every aspect of Amer’s career as a painter, sculptor, illustrator, performer, garden designer, and installation artist. These include the iconic Barbie Loves Ken, Ken Loves Barbie (1995/2002), The Reign of Terror (2005), and Big Black Kansas City Painting—RFGA (2005), as well as a generous selection of works never before exhibited in this country. The exhibition will be on view February 16 through October 19, 2008.
While she describes herself as a painter and has won international recognition for her abstract canvases embroidered with erotic motifs, Ghada Amer is a multimedia artist whose entire body of work is infused with the same ideological and aesthetic concerns. The submission of women to the tyranny of domestic life, the celebration of female sexuality and pleasure, the incomprehensibility of love, the foolishness of war and violence, and an overall quest for formal beauty, constitute the territory that she explores and expresses in her art.
Organized in a chronological and thematic manner that reflects the stages of Amer’s career over the past two decades, Love Has No End commences with her earliest sketchbooks that illustrate the genesis of her ideas about patterning and embroidery. The exhibition continues with a series of works from the artist’s early “domestic series,” followed by works examining fairy tales and other clichés about gender. In addition to the more iconic erotic paintings for which she is most famous, numerous works devoted to world politics are exhibited, including some of her more recent antiwar pieces.
Ghada Amer was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1963, and moved to France at age eleven. She earned a B.F.A. in 1986 and an M.F.A. in 1989 from École Pilote Internationale d’Art et de Recherche, Villa Arson, Nice, France. She now lives and works in New York City. These relocations are reflected in Amer’s work. Her painting is influenced by the idea of shifting meanings and the appropriation of the languages of abstraction and expressionism. Her prints, drawings, and sculptures question clichéd roles imposed on women; her garden projects connect embroidery and gardening as specifically “feminine” activities; and her recent installations address the current tumultuous political climate. Despite the differences between her Islamic upbringing and Western models of behavior, Amer’s work addresses universal problems, such as the oppression of women, which are prevalent in all cultures.
Ghada Amer: Love Has No End is organized for the Brooklyn Museum by Maura Reilly, Ph.D., Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.
A variety of education programs will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition. Visit www.brooklynmuseum.org for information.
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