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Miss America Beauty Pageant
1973
Malcah Zeldis
Born: New York, New York 1931
oil on masonite
48 x 40 in. (121.9 x 101.6 cm.)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr.
1998.84.66
Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center
Malcah Zeldis spent several years living on a kibbutz in Israel and gave herself the Hebrew name Malcah, which means "queen," when she was nineteen. After she returned to the United States, she began to paint satires of American rituals, including national holidays, funerals, and splashy weddings. Zeldis points up the contrast between the golden blondes who dominate this painting and the dark-haired, dark-skinned people around them. The meaning is unclear, but the image suggests that the artist was coming to terms with a culture very different from what she had known in Israel.
For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.
Keywords
Ceremony - other - beauty contest
Figure group
Figure(s) in interior - civic
painting
folk art
paint - oil
fiberboard - masonite
About Malcah Zeldis
Born: New York, New York 1931
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