Kiki Smith (American, born Germany, 1954). <em>[Untitled]</em>, 1991. Lithograph, 22 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. (57.2 x 77.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Emily Winthrop Miles Fund, 1999.17.3. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1999.17.3_PS20.jpg)

Kiki Smith (American, born Germany, 1954). [Untitled], 1991. Lithograph, 22 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. (57.2 x 77.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Emily Winthrop Miles Fund, 1999.17.3. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1999.17.3_PS20.jpg)

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[Untitled]

Kiki Smith

Contemporary Art

Kiki Smith is known for her ongoing engagement with bodily matter and the female form, often through fairy tales and folklore. The title of the set to which this lithograph belongs—Banshee Pearls—combines terms with very different connotations. Pearls have long signified upper-class elegance and femininity, while a banshee is a female spirit in Irish mythology whose chilling screams and ghostlike pallor are omens of death. The word banshee is still used to describe women or girls who are seen as wild or inappropriately behaved. Here, repeating deathlike masks of a woman’s face ask the viewer to consider how female power
relates to beauty and the grotesque.

—CG

[Text not currently in gallery]

PORTFOLIO/SERIES From the set: "Banshee Pearls"

ARTIST Kiki Smith, American, born Germany, 1954

MEDIUM Lithograph

DATES 1991

DIMENSIONS 22 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. (57.2 x 77.5 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 1999.17.3

CREDIT LINE Emily Winthrop Miles Fund

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Kiki Smith (American, born Germany, 1954). [Untitled], 1991. Lithograph, 22 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. (57.2 x 77.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Emily Winthrop Miles Fund, 1999.17.3. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1999.17.3_PS20.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 1999.17.3_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024

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