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Nancy Spero
Nancy Spero, Thou Shalt Not Kill (The Sixth Commandment), signed/n lithograph

1987

About the Item

Nancy Spero Thou Shalt Not Kill (The Sixth Commandment), 1987 from the 10 Commandments Portfolio 9 Color lithograph and letterpress on Dieu Donne handmade paper 24 × 18 inches Edition AP 2/15 Signed and numbered AP 2/15, aside from the regular edition of 84 Printed by Peter Kruty, Dan Stack and Judy Solodkin Unframed with deckled edges This nine color lithograph and letterpress on Dieu Donne handmade paper is a signed, dated and numbered Artist's Proof, numbered AP 2/15, aside from the regular edition of 84. It was created as part of the 1987 portfolio "The Ten Commandments", in which ten top Jewish American artists were each invited to choose an Old Testament commandment to interpret in contemporary lithographic form. The "Chosen" artists were, in order of Commandment: Kenny Scharf, Joseph Nechvatal, Gretchen Bender, April Gornik, Robert Kushner, Nancy Spero, Vito Acconci, Jane Dickson, Judy Rifka and Richard Bosman. This lithograph is in excellent condition; unframed. This is the first time it will have been removed from the original portfolio case. (shown). Lisa Liebmann, who wrote the introduction to the collection, observed: "...The image has, for most of us, replaced the word..." With respect to the present work she writes, "When it comes to the SIXTH COMMANDMENT, Nancy Spero can be considered a fundamentalist. "Though Shalt Not Kill" could serve as the title for almost all of her work, for almost all of those figures, usually heathen, running across scrolls against aggression. This commandment is fitfully stamped here, in the cadence of machine-gun fire and the bold type of tabloid headlines, under the impression of a woman running with a child in her arms. Spero's image and its meaning are without irony or ambivalence. They are not, however, devoid of ambiguity, for the figure - based on a photograph of a Vietnamese woman fleeing attack - is not the image of a victim, but of a warrior performing a warrior's dance, an unarmed hawk against violence..." Excellent original condition. Unframed with deckled edges. Nancy Spero Biography Known for being a passionate activist and feminist, Nancy Spero is above all a great artist. In 1949, she graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago, a stronghold of resolutely figurative painting, after which she studied for a year at the School of Fine Arts in Paris at the atelier of André Lhote. After returning to the United States, she married the painter Leon Golub, with whom she would have three children. At the time, she worked on a single canvas, which she erased and started over and over again, unable to complete it. Her painting up to the mid-60s was dominated by the human figure and remained very dark. Standing figures and embracing couples constituted the major part of her formal vocabulary for over ten years. In 1959, the family moved to Paris. Her Black Paintings became Paris Black Paintings and were shown at the Galerie Breteau. She moved back to New York in 1964, where, horrified by the Vietnam War, she channelled her rage in a new series of works. She gave up oil on canvas, which she deemed too closely related to the masculine world, and replaced them with thin, cheap paper and gouache. From 1966 to 1970, she made about 150 pieces: in War Series, she transcended the burning issue of the atrocities committed by the US army in Vietnam, and in doing so became part of an epic tradition, linking her to Antiquity and its war stories, to the medieval world of illumination, and, more recently, Goya and Otto Dix. -Courtesy National Museum of Women in the Arts
  • Creator:
    Nancy Spero (1926 - 2009, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1987
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1745214928112

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