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Tapestry of Paradise

Miriam Schapiro

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

A trailblazing feminist artist, Miriam Schapiro established the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts in 1971 with Judy Chicago; founded the Pattern and Decoration movement in 1976; and wrote, with Melissa Meyer, the influential text “Waste Not, Want Not: An Inquiry into What Women Saved and Assembled—Femmage,” published in Heresies in 1977. Setting out to remedy the lack of visibility for women artists, Schapiro posited that femmage—decorative and domestic elements traditionally considered “women’s work,” most often excluded from museums and found in vernacular, everyday environments—had great potential for subversion and aesthetic influence. Schapiro’s visually dense and diverse Tapestry of Paradise shows the application of femmage as artistic expression: accumulative and writ large against art history’s diminished view of women artists’ achievements.
MEDIUM Acrylic and collage on canvas
DATES 1980
DIMENSIONS 60 1/8 × 50 1/16 × 2 in. (152.7 × 127.2 × 5.1 cm)  (show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER 2017.16
CREDIT LINE Gift of Robert Sugar
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Miriam Schapiro (American, 1923–2015). Tapestry of Paradise, 1980. Acrylic and collage on canvas, 60 1/8 × 50 1/16 × 2 in. (152.7 × 127.2 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Robert Sugar, 2017.16. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 2017.16_PS9.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 2017.16_PS9.jpg., 2017
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © artist or artist's estate
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Miriam Schapiro (American, 1923–2015). <em>Tapestry of Paradise</em>, 1980. Acrylic and collage on canvas, 60 1/8 × 50 1/16 × 2 in. (152.7 × 127.2 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Robert Sugar, 2017.16. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 2017.16_PS9.jpg)