American Girl from Impressions: Our World, Volume I
Emma Amos
American, 1937–2020
1974
An etching and aquatint by Emma Amos that shows a Black woman reclining and meeting the viewer’s gaze, using printmaking to insist on the presence and subjectivity of Black women in contemporary art.
You’re struck by the figure’s deep, velvety silhouette and steady, confrontational eyes set against a textured interior of mattress-like patterns and vertical curtain strokes that give the scene a tense, intimate rhythm.
Created in 1974, this print places Amos within Black feminist and modernist printmaking, expanding the medium to make everyday Black female life visible and to challenge the art world’s marginalization of women of color.
Medium
Etching and aquatint from a portfolio of seven etchings (five with aquatint, two with embossing)
Dimensions
plate: 15 13/16 × 19 13/16" (40.1 × 50.4 cm); sheet: 22 3/8 × 30" (56.8 × 76.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
247.1975.1
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
