Bessie Smith
Artist
Sarah G. Austin
(1935 - 1994)
Date1987
MediumPhotostat, wood, Plexiglas, paint
Dimensions10 ½ x 12 ½ in.
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Priscilla Cunningham
Terms
Object number2008.43
DescriptionSarah G. Austin (1935-1994)Bessie Smith, 1987
Shadow box
Gift of Priscilla Cunningham, 2008.43
Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1935, Sarah G. Austin, known to her friends and family as "Sally," grew up surrounded by art. Long interested in the mechanical toys and motorized objects that she collected, Austin began building moving sculptures, some of which she contained in small boxes. By the 1970s, these had evolved into shadow boxes. The boxes contained elaborately staged, theatrical scenes depicting 20th century art movements, especially Dadaism, Surrealism, and Cubism, as well as literary and cultural leaders of the time including James Joyce, Vita Sackville-West, and George Gershwin. Austin intended the shadow boxes "not to distort the original image, but rather to change it in a good-natured way." She created over 350 boxes in 25 years, though she refused to exhibit them until the early 1990s.
Bessie Smith (1894-1937), depicted in this work, was one of the most popular female blues singers of the 1920s. She was nicknamed "The Empress of the Blues," and she recorded with many great jazz musicians of the time, including Louis Armstrong. In this shadowbox Austin has cut the photograph of Smith into individual squares and rearranged them into a mosaic pattern. The outcome is a sort of optical illusion, as if Smith's face were reflected in a wall of mirrored tiles. The resulting effect is one of whimsical fun that complements the energy and joy captured by the original photograph.
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