Large Jug
Informed by her ongoing exploration of Black female-identified subjectivity, Simone Leigh’s work is at the nexus of traditional pottery and contemporary sculpture. Large Jug is inspired by a nineteenth-century face jug in The Met’s collection made by an enslaved potter in Old Edgefield, South Carolina, a vessel that likely served both quotidian and ritualistic functions. More than five feet tall, Large Jug features bulbous embellishments in high relief, each with saw tooth perforations reminiscent of cowrie shells, a motif associated with Black culture throughout the African diaspora, and a reference to the Edgefield face vessels. The white glaze evokes the kaolin used in Congolese and Edgefield pottery traditions. This work was included in The Met’s groundbreaking 2022 exhibition Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, which placed the work of enslaved potters in the nineteenth-century American South in dialogue with contemporary artists.
Artwork Details
- Title: Large Jug
- Artist: Simone Leigh (American, born Chicago, Illinois, 1967)
- Date: 2021–22
- Medium: Stoneware
- Dimensions: 61 1/8 × 38 × 39 1/2 in. (155.3 × 96.5 × 100.3 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Purchase, Daniel Xu and Flora Huang, Hayden Family Foundation, Jen Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, and Hudgins Family Gifts, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.485
- Rights and Reproduction: ©Simone Leigh, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Returned to lender
Simone Leigh
2019
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Simone Leigh
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