Miscegenated Family Album
1 of 4
About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
Depicting the artist and her relatives alongside ancient Egyptian royalty, Miscegenated Family Album is a powerful photographic series that explores identity, family, and cultural heritage. It was created in the 1980s by Lorraine O’Grady, who passed away in December 2024 at the age of 90. O’Grady was a pioneering American artist, writer, and cultural critic recognized as a trailblazer in addressing the intersections of race and feminism. In particular, her work challenges the exclusion of Black women from mainstream cultural narratives.
In Miscegenated Family Album, O’Grady places portraits of her sister, Devonia, and herself side-by-side with those of Egyptian royals such as sisters Nefertiti and Mutnodjmet, drawing parallels between her own African American family and the regal history of Africa. The juxtaposition challenges notions of racial identity and the erasure of African lineage in Western art and history. The iconic series is both a personal and political commentary on the complexities of mixed heritage and the enduring impact of history on identity.
Object Label
Modern Artists and Ancient Egypt
Lorraine O’Grady uses ancient Egyptian art to explore contemporary issues.
Artists from many times and places have been inspired by the heritage of ancient Egypt to make new works that speak to their own time. Displaying works like this within the Egyptian Galleries allows visitors to participate in the ongoing dialogue that artists have pursued with the ancients, as they have expressed their stake in ancient history and its continuing relevance.
Lorraine O’Grady’s photographs grew out of a 1980 performance called Nefertiti/Devonia Evangeline, which took place in front of a series of projected images similar to the ones seen here. The work examined the troubled relationship between O’Grady and her deceased sister, Devonia Evangeline, through juxtaposed portraits of the Egyptian queens Nefertiti and Mutnedjmet, of a later reign, proposed by some scholars to be Nefertiti’s sister. Though the subject matter is deeply personal, it allows O’Grady to address issues of class, racism, ethnography, and African American art. Thus, as the artist says, her work attempts to “make the historic personal and the personal historic.”
Caption
Lorraine O'Grady American, born 1934. Miscegenated Family Album, 1994. Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome), 32 prints each: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm) frame (16 frames each): 38 1/8 × 27 1/2 in. (96.8 × 69.9 cm) frame (a's, b's, c's, d's, e's, g's, i's, k's, l's, m's, n's, o's, p's): 27 1/4 × 38 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (69.2 × 97.2 × 3.8 cm) frame (h1-h2): 38 1/4 × 27 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (97.2 × 69.2 × 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by John and Barbara Vogelstein and Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons and bequest of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange, 2008.80. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Gracie Mansion Gallery, CUR.2008.80.jpg)
Tags
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Miscegenated Family Album
Date
1994
Medium
Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome)
Classification
Dimensions
32 prints each: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm) frame (16 frames each): 38 1/8 × 27 1/2 in. (96.8 × 69.9 cm) frame (a's, b's, c's, d's, e's, g's, i's, k's, l's, m's, n's, o's, p's): 27 1/4 × 38 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (69.2 × 97.2 × 3.8 cm) frame (h1-h2): 38 1/4 × 27 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (97.2 × 69.2 × 3.8 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds given by John and Barbara Vogelstein and Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons and bequest of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange
Accession Number
2008.80
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
Frequent Art Questions
How does this relate to the Egyptian galleries?
This is an interesting project by the artist Lorraine O'Grady, who saw a resemblance between her sister, Devonia, and the imagery of the Egyptian family she chose. Nefertiti’s sister, Mutnedjmet, plays an important role in many of the pictures, and the Egyptian queen disappeared from public life at an age close to Devonia’s at the time of her death.Who is this?
That is Queen Nefertiti, the wife of King Akhenaten. Here, Lorraine O'Grady pairs a sculpture of Nefertiti with a sculpture of Mutnedjmet, Nefertiti's sister. In this series, O'Grady likens herself to Mutnedjmet and her own sister to Nefertiti.Tell me more about Lorraine O'Grady.
O'Grady was born in Boston in 1934 and came to art later in life than many artists, at the age of 46. Beforehand, she studied economics, literature, music, and even worked for the government. Her art practice is multidisciplinary and spans various media. Her best known works are in the realm of performance and the documentation of that performance. Miscegenated Family Album is actually related to a performance from 1980. O'Grady's work frequently addresses race and her personal experiences. This work is built on a comparison of her sister to the famous queen, Nefertiti.Thank youWho is Lorraine O’Grady?
Lorraine O'Grady is a contemporary artist who works mostly in the media of performance and photography. In fact, Miscegenated Family Album was born out of a performance in 1980. She was born in Boston in 1934 to West Indian parents and worked for the US Government before becoming an artist at the age of 46.What is the connection between these two people? (Ceremonial Occasions, 1994)
This pairing and the rest of the photographs on this wall come out of a series by artist Lorraine O'Grady called Miscegenated Family Album. She pairs members of her family with historical figures from ancient Egypt, primarily her sister Devonia with Queen Nefertiti as seen here. O'Grady saw a similarity between her sister and Nefertiti and also made the connection that both died or disappeared in their 30s. In this particular pairing, Devonia and Nefertiti are both wearing, as the title suggests, ceremonial dress. It is also worth noting that the garment Nefertiti is shown wearing would have been white like Devonia's wedding gown.
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at
