Monument, 1988

  • Gilda Snowden, American, 1954 - 2014

Encaustic on wood with objects

  • Overall: 76 × 81 × 8 inches (193 × 205.7 × 20.3 cm)

Founders Society Purchase, Chaim, Fanny, Louis, Benjamin, Anne and Florence Kaufman Memorial Trust

1990.300

On View

  • African American N290

Department

African American Art

A painter who also worked with constructions and found objects, Snowden combined the formal issues of surface, texture, and geometric shape with personal history, emotion, and intuition. The death of both of her parents in 1987 led her to produce a series of assemblages, of which “Monument” is the last, dedicated to their memory. Covered with encaustic, a waxy medium that suggests age, these works are charged with personal symbolism that turns them into a “repository of memories.”

1990-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)between 1950 and 1955

Courtesy of Gilda Snowden Contact: Gilda Snowden 2964 E. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48207

Gilda Snowden, Monument, 1988, encaustic on wood with objects. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Chaim, Fanny, Louis, Benjamin, Anne and Florence Kaufman Memorial Trust, 1990.300.