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: Marilyn Nance
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: Photography
Photoprint
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