Lorna Simpson

 

 

 

Untitled (Two Necklines), 1990

mixed media with gelatin silver prints

dimensions variable

NEA Purchase

© Lorna Simpson

 

 

 

Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960)

At the time of her 1990 solo exhibition at the University Art Museum, Lorna Simpson was rapidly achieving recognition for her unique investigations of cultural perception through large-scale photographs and accompanying text panels realized in the context of her experiences as an African American woman. Now a renowned American artist, Simpson continues to create photographic works—fragments of the human figure, snippets of letters and words, empty unidentified rooms—that allow the viewer, as both collaborator and voyeur, to infer a narrative that is often both humorous and painful. While working toward her M.F.A at the University of California at San Diego, Simpson realized that photographs, the supposed bastion of truth and accuracy, could be fraught with cultural and racial ambivalence. Acquired from the Museum’s exhibition, Centric 38: Lorna Simpson (January 30–April 6, 1990), Untitled (Two Necklines) combines two circular images of an African American woman’s lips, neck, and shoulders with a series of words (lasso, halo, ring) describing objects that can surround parts of the body. The viewer is left to decide whether the implied experience is ominous or pleasurable.