Hagar's Dress
Date2007
MediumOffset lithograph
DimensionsImage: 46 7/8 × 34 7/8 inches (119.1 × 88.6 cm)
Sheet: 46 7/8 × 34 7/8 inches (119.1 × 88.6 cm)
Framed: 50 15/16 × 40 7/8 × 1 13/16 inches (129.4 × 103.8 × 4.6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase in honor of Courtney McNeil with Telfair Museum of Art acquisitions endowment funds.
Object number2021.7.6
Copyright© Janet Taylor Pickett, courtesy Jennifer Baahng Gallery.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextHagar’s Dress is among a series of works by Janet Taylor Pickett entitled The Middle Passage Suite—a reference to the route by which African captives were transported across the Atlantic, as well as the process of aging, which the artist has likened to a “crossing.” Pickett explains the title of this piece and its significance:
"Hagar was the ‘slave’ woman that begat Abraham a child because his wife Sarah was unable to conceive. ( ... ) What Hagar represents to me is the [inspiration], spirit, struggle, and creativity in survival. For me the dress also symbolizes the beginning and the carrying on of one’s history. ( ... )"
Among the rows of repeating silhouettes, certain figures are blurred, reversed, slanted, or doubled, effectively subverting the tidiness of the source image, a 19th-century diagram of hundreds of enslaved Africans stowed into one ship. Through these discreet distortions, the artist reinfuses the image with a sense of the captives’ brutal experiences and calls attention to those who did not survive the journey.
Text written for 'Contemporary Spotlight: New Acquisitions from the Brandywine Workshop' on view February 4 - May 1, 2022.
