American artist Benny Andrews is known for fusing oil paint with collaged fabric to treat memory as something you can touch. In “Mother Death,” a tall, brown-skinned figure stands against a pale lavender background, built in low relief from painted canvas and cut fabric. She wears a wide-brimmed hat striped blue with a red band, a white lace-edged collar and sleeve, and a black top over blue-and-indigo striped skirt or pants. In her right hand, a round purple handbag dotted with bright rosettes; in the other, a blue jar wrapped in red-striped cloth containing a tall green plant with black, leafless branches rising like silhouettes. Edges lift from the surface, as Andrews emphasizes texture, seam, and shadow. The tender plant and the stark, skeletal branches stage a quiet dialogue between nurture and mortality, hinted by the work’s title. Lace cuffs and the small purse dignify everyday adornment, while the figure’s gaze and posture evoke the resilience Andrews championed in portrayals of Black Southern life. In the early 1990s while living in New York and teaching at Queens College, Andrews refined portrait-like images drawn from family, community, and rituals of care. “It bothers me not being seen as a complicated individual,” he said. This work insists on that complexity through texture, presence, and quiet symbolism.
“Mother Death” by Benny Andrews (“mAmerican) - Oil and collage / 1992 - Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans, Louisiana) #WomenInArt #MixedMedia #BlueskyArt #art #artText #artwork #BennyAndrews #AfricanAmericanArt #BlackArt #BlackArtists #ContemporaryArt #OgdenMuseum #OgdenMuseumOfSouthernArt
