Great Aunts, Grandma Anna’s Funeral, Birmingham, Alabama

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Marilyn Nance, Great Aunts, Grandma Anna's Funeral, Birmingham, Alabama, 1979, gelatin silver print, sheet: 15 7⁄8 x 19 7⁄8 in. (40.4 x 50.4 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1994.66.5, © 1979, Marilyn Nance

Artwork Details

Title
Great Aunts, Grandma Anna’s Funeral, Birmingham, Alabama
Artist
Date
1979
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 15 7⁄8 x 19 7⁄8 in. (40.4 x 50.4 cm.)
Copyright
© 1979, Marilyn Nance
Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • African American
  • Ceremony — funeral
  • Landscape — Alabama — Birmingham
  • Portrait group — family
Object Number
1994.66.5
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1994.66.5

Artwork Description

Great Aunts, Grandma Anna’s Funeral, Birmingham, Alabama may have triggered Nance’s initial interest in spirituality. She knew that the people she met at her grandmother’s funeral were family, but, she wrote, “I didn’t know who they were or how I was related.” Even so, their gathering to commemorate her grandmother’s life, she felt, “was a testimony to our perseverance and continued struggle.” The rich black tones of her great aunts’ clothing as the women emerge from the dark interior personalize the scene and unite the women in their grief.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012

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Thomas Moran, Fort George Island, Florida, 1878, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Neil M. Judd, 1970.73
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