Untitled (2 Necklines)

1989

Lorna Simpson

Artist, American, born 1960

Ten black, horizontal, rectangular panels are hung evenly spaced in a vertical stack above a larger red rectangle, and those eleven pieces are flanked by two identical, round, black and white photographs that are almost as tall as the stacked panels. Each of the ten black panels bear a single word in lowercase, white letters. From top to bottom, they read, “ring,” “surround,” “lasso,” “noose,” “eye,” “areola,” “halo,” “cuffs,” “collar,” and “loop.” The red panel is inscribed, also with white, lowercase letters, “feel the ground sliding from under you.” Each of the two round photographs is framed with a narrow black band and shows the full lips, narrow chin, collarbone, and chest of a Black person. The person wears a white scooped neck top that creates a crescent moon shape at the bottom of the image.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    2 gelatin silver prints and 11 engraved plaques

  • Credit Line

    Gift of the Collectors Committee

  • Dimensions

    overall: 174 x 177.8 cm (68 1/2 x 70 in.)

  • Accession

    2005.44.1.a-c

  • Copyright

    © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

More About this Artwork

Video:  Two-Minute Tour: The Double

Join us on a two-minute tour of The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900, an exhibition that flips reality, splits time, and causes us to see ourselves seeing.


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Lorna Simpson; NGA purchase, 2005.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2006

  • Lorna Simpson, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles; Miami Art Museum; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2006 - 2007, unnumbered catalogue.

2016

  • Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2016 - 2017, unnumbered catalogue.

Bibliography

2006

  • Lorna Simpson. Exh. cat., The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles; Miami Art Museum; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo; The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston. New York: Abrams, in association with the American Federation of Arts, 2006.

Inscriptions

on verso of panel b, signed by artist, on Sean Kelly Gallery label affixed to bottom center: Lorna Simpson; typed on label in black ink: edition of 3, 2 AP's (AP 1/2)

Wikidata ID

Q64157548


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