Mimi Smith

These works offer contrasting perspectives on motherhood and domesticity. Pippin, a self-taught African American painter, emphasizes the spirit of simplicity in colonial-era Quaker homes. Quietly depicting a mother and her infant child, he evokes associations with what could be seen as a less complicated historical moment in American domestic life. Smith presents a dress she made for herself during a pregnancy. Maternity Dress challenges social conventions and clothing designs that conceal, rather than celebrate, the transformed physical condition of pregnant women.

[see also: 44.094]