Focusing on Emma Amos‘s long-term commitment to themes of Greco-Roman antiquity, Classical Legacies presents a fresh take on the prolific artist’s substantial body of work.
Co-opting the built-in pedigree of classicist motifs in her representation of the Black body, Black middle class, and her own family history, Amos carves herself a place within the Western canon with the works currently on view.
Featured in the exhibition is Emma Amos’s Odyssey, a cycle of 10 epic-sized, hand-painted monoprints, which will be exhibited for the first time in over 3 decades.
This will be the first time that Amos’s landmark Odyssey prints will be exhibited to the public in twenty years. Valerie J. Mercer wrote in an essay accompanying Amos’s major 1995 exhibition Emma Amos: Paintings and Prints, 1982-1992: “Because of the monumental scale of the prints, Odyssey can take up the spaces of a whole room when it is shown. The series focused on 100 years of the history of the artist’s family in Atlanta, from the period shortly after slavery up to the 1960s. It was inspired by the splendid collection of family photographs belonging to Amos’s parents and represents pride in her family and in their achievements.”
RYAN LEE
515 West 26th Street, Floor 3, New York, NY 10001
