POST BY ANNE JOHNSON
Nancy Spero. Peace, 1968. Gouache and ink on paper, 19 x 23 3/4 in (48.3 x 60.3 cm). Photo courtesy of Galerie Lelong.
Maybe it's a little late in coming (the artist died in October 2009), but Nancy Spero's life in images will finally be recognized in a commemoration put on by her long-time representation, Galerie Lelong. On the six-month anniversary of her death, friends, mourners, and admirers are gathering to celebrate the late great.
The paintings that make up her famous “War Series” from 1966-1970, a commentary on the Vietnam War, are wrought with raging brushstrokes and evoke a strong emotional response just as relevant today as it was forty years ago. “I wanted to make images to express the obscenity of war, the collusion of sex, male power and the power of the military,” the artist explained once in an interview. Spero's work along with that of her late husband, artist Leon Golub, always reinforced the couple's core beliefs in equality and tolerance.
Spero was an active member of Women Artists in Revolution and a founder of the first women's cooperative gallery, A.I.R. (Artists in Residence) in SoHo, now in Dumbo, Brooklyn.
The event is open to all and will take place this Sunday, April 18th at 3:00pm in the Great Hall at Cooper Union. Speakers include author Jon Bird, Whitney Chief Curator Donna de Salvo, fellow artist Kiki Smith, Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, and many others.
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