  About the Artwork
  
  
  In 1942, art patron Peggy Guggenheim invited Richard Pousette-Dart to exhibit at her New York gallery and paint a portrait of her teenage daughter Pegeen. The right half of the painting mirrors, and formally dissolves, the firmly articulated left half. Pegeen's pony-tailed profile teems with biological activity even as it competes with the unmistakable presence of African sculpture: a Senufo face mask, a Kota reliquary figure, and a Bamana antelope can be seen in the painting's textured surface. Eyes abound as symbols of the young girl's curiosity.
  
  
  Title
  Portrait of Pegeen
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 1942 and 1943
  
  Artist
  Richard Pousette-Dart
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1916-1992
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on linen
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 50 × 52 inches (127 × 132.1 cm)
  Framed: 50 3/4 × 52 5/8 × 1 3/4 inches (128.9 × 133.7 × 4.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  Contemporary Art after 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  1989.71
  
  
  Copyright
  © 2005 Estate of Richard Pousette-Dart / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
