Fiber Art Assemblage Wall Hanging Attributed to Barbara Hershey

Item Details

Attributed to Barbara Hershey (American, 1943 – 1992)
Untitled (character quilt), late 20th century
Patchwork wall hanging of photo transfer prints on cotton and silk fabric with inscribed ink captions and assemblage of found objects including hair rollers, handcuffs, tinsel, beads, and faux flowers
Unsigned
Fabric loops to upper edge for hanging

Provenance
From the artist’s estate

Photographer Barbara Hershey was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Known for her distinctive application of the cibachrome and cliché verre processes, Hershey used photography as means to explore our inner lives by utilizing images meant to invoke complex layers, much like the subconscious or dreams, with notes of emerging feminism. Beginning her artistic career in black and white, Hershey plunged into the use of color by experimenting with painting on negatives, collaging those negatives, making collages of the subsequent photographs, and photographing those collages. Notably she created a personal series that revolved around the exuberance of pre-adolescence in her daughter, Andrea, which sought to reflect the moods felt by her age group through her layering process. Meanwhile, Hershey became a professor of art history and history of photography at her alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, and also taught for periods of time at Wright State University, Northern Kentucky University, and Miami University. In 1981 Hershey was an artist-in-residence for the Ohio Arts Council “Artist’s in Education” Program, exhibiting her work in a number of one-person shows. Her work has been collected by various private and public collections. A retrospective of Hershey’s work was held at Miami University in 1995, featuring the full and complex range of her photographs.

Condition

- notable odor to textile; wrinkles and creases throughout piece; accretion to found object elements; some loose stitching throughout, including stitched tacks for objects loosened; foam on hair curlers is brittle and easily crumbles; surface wear to photo transfers with resulting image loss.

Dimensions

Item #

ITMG273719