The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

The Great Speckled Bird

The Great Speckled Bird

2013
(American, 1944-)
American, 21st century
color screenprint on perforated player-piano roll
Sheet: 28.6 x 111.1 cm (11 1/4 x 43 3/4 in.); Framed: 38.6 x 113.4 cm (15 3/16 x 44 5/8 in.)
Gift of Stephen Dull 2018.53.c
© Allen Ruppersberg, Courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali, New York
Location: not on view

Description

This work by Allen Ruppersberg is an evocative visualization of American folk music. It takes its title from the Southern hymn “The Great Speckled Bird,” and it is printed on a player piano roll for that song. Across the image, Ruppersberg hand-wrote the lyrics to different hymns on American motel stationary that he collected over a period of several decades.
  • Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weil, New York, NY
    Stephen Dull, Greensboro, NC
    June 4, 2018
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Kendrick, Isbella. “Allen Ruppersberg: The Great Speckled Bird” in Art in Print, Chicago, Jan.-Feb. 2014, vol. 3, no 5.
    Ruppersberg, Allen, Jason Burch, and Bill Berkson. And Writing. New York: Christine Burgin, 2014.
    Engberg, Siri, and Thomas E. Crow. Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968-2018. 2018.
    Ollman, Leah. “In the Studio: Allen Ruppersberg,” in Art in America (March 1, 2018) www.artinamericamagazine.com
  • {{cite web|title=The Great Speckled Bird|url=false|author=Allen Rawson Ruppersberg, Gemini G. E. L. at Joni Moisant Weyl|year=2013|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.53.c