2012.14 Mother and Children (2)

Mother and Children (2) is one of Nancy Spero’s earliest paintings, and belongs to a series of works referred to as the Paris Black Paintings. This series includes about thirty paintings and a dozen works on paper, which she executed while living in Paris in the late-1950s and 1960. Major themes include childbirth and relationships between lovers, parents, and children. Ethereal figures in this series are often obscured by a misty, murky haze.

This painting was created just after Spero’s second child (of three) was born in 1954. As a mother and artist, Spero found that she often only had time to work in the studio at night after the children went to bed. Spero stated: “They are paintings of the night revealing things that happen in the night. The darkness envelops the figures and gives them a sense of protection. These works were meant to be about isolation. The figures are related yet they are not. We are ultimately alone and isolated. I wanted to make an existential statement about the self.”

Jeffrey Grove, DMA Label text, 2012. 

Until 2012: Estate of the Artist

2012: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased through Galerie Lelong, New York [1]

Notes:

The main source for this provenance is the copy of the invoice dated May 30, 2012, in the Collections Records object file (2012.14).

Apply to objects where number equals 2012.14