Fantastic Sagas: Soldier
Artist
Robert Pruitt
(American, born 1975)
Date2013
MediumConte crayon, charcoal powder, and glitter on hand-dyed paper
Dimensions147.3 × 121 cm (58 × 47 5/8 in.)
ClassificationsDrawings
Credit LineMuseum purchase through the estate of Blake Robinson
Object number2019.29.1
DescriptionDouble-sided drawingLabel TextPruitt’s double-sided drawing is rooted in Afrofuturism, a visual and literary movement that merges science fiction, fantasy, technology, and history to envision a liberated, Black utopian future. The women on both sides of this work are characters featured in Pruitt’s comic Fantastic Sagas. His all-female cast of superheroes struggle to protect their idealized Black society from alien villains. Here, Pruitt employs juxtaposition both in the double-sided nature of the work and in the heroines’ clothing, armor, and masks. One woman wears a modern-day gown, jewelry, and armature contrasted with an ancestral gle mask of the Dan people who reside in Liberia and the Ivory Coast. The figure on the reverse wears a white contemporary t-shirt contrasted with a mask featuring the spiritual figure D’mba. D’mba represents the ideal woman for Guinea’s Baga people: fertile, sociable, and powerful.ProvenanceKoplin Del Rio, Los Angeles, then acquired by present owner from Koplin, Worcester Art Musuem won at auction May 15, 2018
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