The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Without Feather Boa

1965

Emma Amos

(American, 1937–2020)
America
color etching and aquatint
Support: 81.9 x 62.4 x 0.2 cm (32 1/4 x 24 9/16 x 1/16 in.); Image: 76.8 x 57.5 cm (30 1/4 x 22 5/8 in.)
Alma Kroeger Fund 2021.142
© Emma Amos; Courtesy of RYAN LEE Gallery, New York
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Emma Amos revisited the self-portrait seen in this print in a painting entitled Baby (1966, Whitney Museum), in which she appears against a colorful abstract background.

Description

Emma Amos used the creative potential of printmaking to address issues of race, gender, and social inequity. This print features a self-portrait in which the artist appears topless, gazing directly at the viewer through a pair of opaque sunglasses. Its varied patterning suggests Amos’s training in fabric design, as well as her interest in experimenting with and developing her own methods of etching. Amos selected the work to be included in the first and only exhibition of Spiral, an influential Black artists’ collective of which she was the youngest and only female member, in 1965.
  • 1965-2020
    Emma Amos family collection
    2020–2021
    (Ryan/Lee Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2021-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Without Feather Boa|url=false|author=Emma Amos|year=1965|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2021.142