Virgen de los Caminos

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Virgen de los Caminos, 1994, embroidered and quilted cotton and silk with graphite, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1996.77
Copied Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Virgen de los Caminos, 1994, embroidered and quilted cotton and silk with graphite, 58 x 36 in. (147.3 x 91.4 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1996.77

Artwork Details

Title
Virgen de los Caminos
Artist
Date
1994
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
58 x 36 in. (147.3 x 91.4 cm.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
embroidered and quilted cotton and silk with graphite
Classifications
Keywords
  • Religion — New Testament — Mary
  • Allegory — civic — injustice
  • Figure — fragment — skeleton
Object Number
1996.77
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1996.77

Artwork Description

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood created Virgen de los Caminos (Virgin of the Roads) to reflect the struggles of Mexicans looking for opportunity in the United States. In the center of the quilt, she embroidered the Virgin of Guadalupe, to whom the travelers pray as they make the dangerous crossing. The barbed wire symbolizes the literal border between the two countries that separates insiders from outsiders, while the flowers at the corners refer to Mexican festivals and holidays. The word caution and the image of a running family appear throughout the background, but are stitched in nearly invisible white thread. Underwood added these details to suggest that undocumented immigrants are invisible in the eyes of United States citizens. (Yorba, Arte Latino, Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2001)

Videos

Exhibitions

Media - 2019.15 - SAAM-2019.15_1 - 137377
Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women
May 31, 2024–January 5, 2025
Renwick Gallery
The artists in Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women mastered and subverted the everyday materials of cotton, felt, and wool to create deeply personal artworks.