Birth of the Mammy I
Date1999
Artist
Joyce J. Scott
(American artist, born 1948)
MediumMixed media
Dimensionsoverall: 21 × 9 × 6 in. (53.3 × 22.9 × 15.2 cm)
figure: 19 1/2 × 7 × 9 in. (49.5 × 17.8 × 22.9 cm)
base: 5 1/2 × 2 3/4 × 2 3/4 in. (14 × 7 × 7 cm)
figure: 19 1/2 × 7 × 9 in. (49.5 × 17.8 × 22.9 cm)
base: 5 1/2 × 2 3/4 × 2 3/4 in. (14 × 7 × 7 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Alberta du Pont Bonsal Foundation, 2000
Object number2000-15
On View
On viewCollections
ClassificationsSCULPTURE
Label TextJoyce Scott, African American herself, often uses her artwork as a means to comment on social injustices and prevailing stereotypes. In this beaded sculpture, she attacks the culturally loaded term "mammy," an alteration of the word mother used in reference to African American slave and servant women. Scott transforms this historically negative stereotype into an African goddess, a powerful figure who tells her own story.
