Emma Amos

Interpretation

Pie in the Sky presents three falling figures and a slice of a map of the southern tip of Africa against a dark, gesturally painted background. Amos frames this scene with Dutch wax-print fabric, a legacy of European colonialism that has been reclaimed by Afrocentric culture. The falling figure, a prevalent motif in Amos’s work, here alludes to the turbulent process of dismantling the racially discriminatory governmental policies in South Africa and Namibia known as Apartheid.

Acquisition details

I chose this work for acquisition to honor the legacies of Emma Amos and Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, the first known woman of color to graduate from RISD. Both artists were prominent educators--Amos at Rutgers from 1980 to 2008, and Prophet at Spelman College from 1934 to 1944. Both also contributed to prominent historical moments and events. Amos developed a craft-centered TV show in 1977 and served as the only female member of the Black artist-activist collective Spiral in the 1960s, while Prophet was one of the foremost American artists working in Paris in the 1920s and ’30s.

-Ahmari Benton, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet Fellow, RISD Museum