Howardena Pindell

Howardena Pindell is an artist whose work addresses issues of racism and sexism. In the 1970s, Pindell began using a lengthy process of making conceptual art by destructing and reconstructing various materials, such as hole punching paper or cutting and sewing canvases together that were then painted, drawn on, or adorned with glitter and perfumes. In Untitled #1, layers of hole-punched paper dots with painted arrows are glued onto canvas. The circular dot is a significant image for Pindell. She can recall an event during the 1950s when she was in Kentucky and had to drink from a cup with a red circle label that signaled to a racially segregated society that a Black person drank from the cup. According to Pindell in a 2014 interview with ARTnews: “I realized that’s really the origin story of my being driven to try to change the circle in my mind trying to take the sting out of that.”

Title: Untitled 1 
Artist: Howardena Pindell (b. 1943)     
Date: 1975
Medium: paper, thread, ink on board             
Dimensions: Image: 15 x 15 inches; Framed in plexi box: 20 3/8 x 20 3/8 inches
Accession Number: H77.56.02

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to Curatorial & Visitor Services.

Reproduction of the images contained on this page is not permitted without express permission.  If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in the collections overseen by the New York State Office of General Services, or an image of an OGS publication or archival material, please contact Curatorial & Visitor Services.