The new Serpo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery has opened this week.
Nancy Serpo, a leading pioneer of feminist art, made her mark on paper with pen and pencil, ink and gouache, stencil and collage, and while one might argue that many men have done so too, Spero is unequivocal.
To describe her creations as simply as works on paper, for instance, is to ignore a central point. Spero made no other kind of work. She did not paint with oil on canvas, the typical medium for the typical artist (principally male), and she did not sculpt.
The works on display explore issues of subjugation, brutality and the abuse of power and uses a broad range of visual sources, including Etruscan and Roman frescos, mythology, fashion magazines and feminist history.
War, torture, violence against women: These prominent words speak for themselves and are clearly a form of political expression, no matter that they offer no opinions and propose no solutions.
Where Serpo really finds form is in the imagination, in the delicate but horrifying figments formed using gouache (which is so diluted, it lies pale on the page.) She produced these year after year, all through the Vietnam war, her rage and despair ceases to diminish.
These images on display are unforgettable and this is the way Serpo intended them. They represent her at her strongest: a conscience making art to an absolute and unmistaken purpose.
The exhibition is the first major presentation of the American artists work since she died in 2009.
Lest we ever forget the horrors of war.
Follow the link to Aesthetica Magazine's blog to read a memoir of Nancy Spero by fellow American feminist artist, Kiki Smith.
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