3 Ladies
Emma Amos
American, 1937–2020
1970
A large, five-part screenprint and relief-etched print in which Emma Amos stages three women of different bodies and skin tones to contest traditional images of the nude and assert Black women’s presence in modern art.
What hits you first are the bold, poster-like color fields—blaze red, deep blue, ochre—set against scratchy, etched white marks that give the figures a carved, tactile look while the visible seams of the five sheets create a collage-like, conversational arrangement of the women.
By fusing printmaking, painterly color, and feminist critique, Amos expanded the language of prints and helped carve out space for intersectional representation in a modernist art world that had largely marginalized Black women.
Medium
Screenprint and relief-printed etching in five parts
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 59 7/16 × 36 13/16" (151 × 93.5 cm); sheet (overall): 62 1/2 × 39 3/8" (158.8 × 100 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Endowment for Prints
Accession
714.2019
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
