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Artist/Maker
Carrie Mae Weems
(American, born 1953)
Date2004
MediumPigmented inkjet print with text
DimensionsImage: 9 15/16 × 9 15/16 in. (25.2 × 25.2 cm)
Sheet: 11 15/16 × 11 15/16 in. (30.3 × 30.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of William E. Williams, Class of 1973, in honor of David Nathans, Class of 1972
Object number2006.7
Not on view
DescriptionThis photograph depicts a black woman in a dress and hat walking down a worn path between trees. Text appears above the woman and reads, "Squared toed and flat-footed you appeared as my guardian angel leading me along the dust tracks in the road & back to the meaning of myself." This work is from a series that pays homage to novelist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who was one of the first black anthropologists to study African American folklore. It is set in Hurston's hometown of Eatonville, Florida. Weems considered herself changed after reading Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (1937) and saw a path for herself as a visual artist. (SOURCE: Kathryn E. Delmez, "Real Facts, by Real People: Folklore in the Early Work of Carrie Mae Weems," in Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, in association with Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2012), p. 13).
Collections
Additional Details
Exhibition History
2007
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Highlights from the Permanent Collection," February 19 - April 15, 2007 (no catalog).
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Highlights from the Permanent Collection," February 19 - April 15, 2007 (no catalog).
Provenance
2006: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by gift of William E. Williams.
Markings
No markings noted.
Signature
Signed and dated "Carrie M Weems, 2004" on verso at lower center in pencil.
Inscribed
No inscriptions noted.
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