Two Women II

Kay WalkingStick, Two Women II, 1973, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2021.30.1, © Kay Walkingstick, 2017
Copied Kay WalkingStick, Two Women II, 1973, acrylic on canvas, overall: 42 38 × 44 18 in. (107.6 × 112.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2021.30.1, © Kay Walkingstick, 2017

Artwork Details

Title
Two Women II
Date
1973
Dimensions
overall: 42 38 × 44 18 in. (107.6 × 112.1 cm)
Copyright
© Kay Walkingstick, 2017
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums
Mediums Description
acrylic on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group — female
Object Number
2021.30.1

Artwork Description

How easily can you find the two women of the title? The painting's eye-popping hues and lack of volumetric detail create playful confusion between the figures and the background.

A Cherokee woman, Kay WalkingStick has been a double trailblazer in American art. She describes this painting as a joyful expression of female self-determination and sensuality. Produced amid the women's movement and the sexual revolution of the 1970s, it offers a rejoinder to the long history of male artists depicting the female nude.

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