Holy Mary from Book Drafts
Rosemarie Trockel
German, born 1952
1978
A small page of ink and colored‑pencil sketches in which Rosemarie Trockel tests blunt, handwritten phrases and a crudely drawn cross to probe and unsettle religious language and identity.
What strikes you is the raw, childlike lettering—staccato capitals reading “HOLY MARY / WITH / HOLY BEATE LARSFELD”—and the tentative red cross above, all on a pale sheet showing ghosted erasures and overlapping marks that feel like private note‑taking.
As an early draft, it shows how Trockel employed scribbled text and humble materials to bring conceptual art into conversation with religion, gender, and the vernacular, helping open paths for later feminist and text‑based practices.
Medium
Ink and colored pencil on seven pieces of paper
Dimensions
page (each): 6 1/8 × 4 1/8" (15.6 × 10.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Anonymous gift
Accession
699.2015.1.a-g
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
