Tenderheaded & Heavyhanded
Angela Pilgrim American
Not on view
In Tenderheaded & Heavyhanded, Pilgrim refers to the painter, printmaker, and fabric artist Emma Amos. Pilgrim collages strips of patterned paper to create a decorative border that recalls the African fabric Amos used in several pieces, such as her 2012 work Memory. Amos, the youngest and only female member of the Black artists’ group Spiral, focused on creating positive depictions of Black women—often through self-portraits. Pilgrim shares Amos’s interest in representing the identities and everyday experiences of Black women in America. Here, she combines images that recall pop culture from the 1970s to celebrate the beauty and strength of natural hair. Pilgrim contrasts the different meanings and actions involved in tenderness, sensitivity, and care, with elements of force, strength, and toxicity.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
