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God's Gift to Man
Bessie Harvey
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Bessie Harvey described her art as a collaboration with nature and God. Her anthropomorphic compositions grew from found natural forms in wood foraged in Tennessee, informed by her personal study of African art. In God’s Gift to Man, detailed and individualized women are arranged on top of a visceral red gash. Harvey grapples with Biblical gender edicts demanding women be subservient to men, while evincing the painful frequency and reality of abuse and sexual assault of women by those same men.
MEDIUM
Wood, Paint, Textile, Paper, Plastics, Hair, Metal
DATES
1987
DIMENSIONS
47 × 48 × 26 in., 218 lb. (119.4 × 121.9 × 66 cm, 98.88kg) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
2018.37.5
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2018
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Bessie Harvey (American, 1929–1994). God's Gift to Man, 1987. Wood, Paint, Textile, Paper, Plastics, Hair, Metal, 47 × 48 × 26 in., 218 lb. (119.4 × 121.9 × 66 cm, 98.88kg). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2018, 2018.37.5. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , CUR.2018.37.5.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, CUR.2018.37.5.jpg., 2018
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© artist or artist's estate
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