Collection
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Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Heather's Dégradé

Ghada Amer

1 of 4

Object Label

In textiles, dégradé refers to the diminution of a fabric’s color when a dye fades from dark to light. In Heather’s Dégradé, Ghada Amer depicts women who seem to be in a state of dégradé, the outlines of their bodies, in explicit poses often culled from pornography, almost dissolving into overlapping forms that appear at a distance as an abstraction. Her choice of words is also a play on women’s “degradation” by the act of sex—traditionally thought to downgrade the social value of women—here depicted with pleasure and sensuousness. Amer’s choice of thread as a medium is a nod to the devaluation of sewing as “women’s work,” as well as to the modern perception that “craft,” as the production of those who labor for a living, has less intrinsic value than “fine” art.

Caption

Ghada Amer (American, born Egypt, 1963). Heather's Dégradé, 2006. Embroidery and gel medium on canvas, 78 x 62 x 1 1/2 in. (198.1 x 157.5 x 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund, Mary Smith Dorward Fund, William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund, and Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund, 2013.50.1. © Ghada Amer. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

Heather's Dégradé

Date

2006

Medium

Embroidery and gel medium on canvas

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

78 x 62 x 1 1/2 in. (198.1 x 157.5 x 3.8 cm)

Signatures

Signed in pencil on lower left edge of canvas: "Ghada Amer 06"

Credit Line

Frank L. Babbott Fund, Mary Smith Dorward Fund, William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund, and Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund

Accession Number

2013.50.1

Rights

© Ghada Amer

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Frequent Art Questions

  • Why did Ghada Amer intentionally use pornographic/erotic women in this work?

    By using erotic images of women, Amer is questioning the rules imposed on women concerning their bodies and sexuality.
    She is both critiquing female objectification while also celebrating female pleasure.

  • Tell me more!

    Ghada Amer is best known for her erotic embroideries meant to question the rules imposed on women as well as questioning the line between "art" and "craft."
    The figures she chooses to reproduce in thread are the ones she finds the most sexy and powerful. She typically sources them from magazines.

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Artists and makers

Ghada Amer

1 work in the collection