The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 21, 2023

Bouffant Pride

2003

Ellen Gallagher

(American, b. 1965)

America, 21st century

Collage of photogravures, plasticine, paint, ink, and found objects

Support: Rag paper

Sheet: 34.3 x 26.6 cm (13 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.)

Judith and James Saks in memory of Lynn and Dr. Joseph Tomarkin Endowment 2003.340

© Ellen Gallagher. Courtesy Gagosian.

Edition: 20

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Ellen Gallagher was drawn to wig advertisements like the one used in this collage due to their grid-like structure.

Description

Ellen Gallagher's work addresses the history of African American stereotypes. In this collage, the artist appropriated an advertisement for glamorous wigs from a 1960s issue of Ebony, a magazine geared toward African Americans. Using plasticine, toy eyeballs, paint, and ink, she exaggerated and completely transformed the images that once promised to beautify the magazine's average reader.

Provenance
2003
(Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
2003-
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Chaffee, Cathleen, Jeffrey D, Grove, "Commodity Arts", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 07, September 2004 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 10-11 archive.org
Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 96-97, no. 143
Exhibition history

Needful Things: Recent Multiples. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 19, 2004-January 2, 2005).

The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).

Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 24-May 18, 2014).

Who RU2 Day: Mass Media and the Fine Art Print. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 18, 2018-March 24, 2019).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.340