Wangechi Mutu
American, born Kenya, born 1972Second Born, 2013
On view
24 kt gold, collagraph, relief, digital printing, collage, and hand coloring on paper
Dimensions36 × 43 in. (91.4 × 109.2 cm)
Museum purchase with funds from the Collection Endowment, 2015.65
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Wangechi Mutu was influenced by her father’s obsession with keeping up with current events through periodicals such as Newsweek, Time, and National Geographic. Now living in Brooklyn, New York, Mutu employs clippings of these mass-produced and ephemeral images to create collages that comment on issues of gender, race, war, and colonialism. Her artworks create engaging and sometimes unsettling narratives where symbols transcend their original contexts and reach across temporal and cultural gaps. She also used collage when she turned to printmaking as a student in art school.
Printed in 2013 by Pace Editions, in New York City, Second Born was made using 10 separate steps, with a combination of screenprint, intaglio, linocut, collage, digital printing, and hand-applied ink for different parts of the image. The first step was an application of 24kt gold leaf, seen in the hair and body of the woman. Of this work, the artist states: “Second Born is dedicated to my second-born. It took me a year to make, but I wanted to articulate a maternal figure. The mother is in fact holding a child made out of the rescue blankets I use in my installations.”
