Untitled+(Woman+and+Child)

Date: ca. 1950
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/2004/2004.20_1a.jpg?itok=UhXq3q7a width="233" height="310" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/untitled-woman-and-child-71832"]] || Title: **Untitled (Woman and Child)**

Artist: **Selma Burke** Born: Mooresville, North Carolina 1900 Died: New Hope, Pennsylvania 1995

Medium: painted red oak Dimensions: overall: 47 1/8 x 12 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. (119.6 x 32.3 x 29.8 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of John A. Sakal and Terry L. Bengel in honor of Dr. Paul Albert Chew, Founding Director of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Accession: 2004.20 || "Art didn't start black or white, it just started. There have been too many labels in this world: . . . Negro, Colored, Black, African-American . . . Why do we still label people with everything except 'children of God'?" Selma Burke, quoted in Schwalb, "Without Color," ARTnews, September 1994
 * Luce Center Quote: **

In Selma Burke's Untitled (Woman and Child) the figures appear to materialize out of the wood, and the woman's arm and child's back merge to represent the closeness of their bond. Burke followed an African practice of selecting carving materials for their symbolic value, and chose to sculpt this scene in red oak, which embodies the strength of the figures' relationship.
 * Luce Center Label: **


 * Suggested Questions: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **