Description:
Green marble statue of an abstract female figure with a snake twined around her legs, her arms outstretched.
Label Text:
Nana is a playful yet complex appropriation of prehistoric goddess figurines, biblical themes, and classical works of art, most notably the Laocoön Group. Just as the unfortunate Trojan priest is about to be devoured by a giant serpent, Nana is also in peril. Or is she? The phallic form of the snake ensnaring the thighs of this bulbous female humorously suggests sexual intercourse. Saint-Phalle first examined the motif of the nude and the serpent in her mixed-media canvases of the late 1950s, subsequently inventing the figure “Nana” in the 1960s. Nana is the only piece in this gallery carved out of marble. Observe how the marble’s natural green color and white veins play into the narrative.
-Gülru Çakmak, Assistant Professor of Nineteenth-Century European Art, University of Massachussetts Amherst
A Very Long Engagement: Nineteenth-Century Sculpture and Its Afterlives (July 29, 2017 - May 27, 2018)
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2007.11 |
