Dancer is a large printed silk banner, designed to hang vertically from the ceiling or against a wall, either flat against it or protruding at a 90-degree angle. The Dancer, an image of a 5th Century BC Greek temple dancer, is one of the most familiar characters from the cast of women that Spero draws upon to create her scrolls and friezes, and is presented here alone upon a bright red ground. The lush color and material reflect Spero's recent focus on the celebratory, and the singular ideas of pleasure and exuberance. Like its predecessor, A Cycle In Time, the use of the banner format reads both as a symbol of declaration and celebration. Flag-like patterns and imagery in recent drawings now become an actual flag, hanging brightly in mid-air and demanding attention, playfully imposing upon its space. Dancer flutters with a passing movement, the material reminiscent of Spero's use of long scroll-like paper pinned directly onto the wall. The silk fabric "corresponds especially well to the artist's conception of baroque, as it lends itself to splendid, glowing color and flowing movement. The elegance and beauty of the material suit her idea of expressing the magnificent sensuousness of the baroque as well as providing an appropriate background fro the drama of her female figures." Barbara Wally It also has a medieval quality, typical of Spero's habit of bridging many historic eras to achieve her artistic goal.

Her later series of scroll works - the Codex Artaud, The First Language and the Torture of Women, and Notes in Time, established her position as a key feminist and post modernist. In recent years Spero has continued to work on monumental scroll works, with the addition of saturated color.

Nancy Spero has exhibited internationally since 1949. Exhibitions include Artaud Paintings and Codex Artaud, Frac Haute-Normandie, France; Weighing the Heart Against a Feather of Truth, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Spain; OtherWorlds: The Art of Nancy Spero and Kiki Smith, Baltic Mill Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England; Nancy Spero: A Continuous Present, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany; New Hangings of the Modern Collection, Musee National d’art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Think With the Senses-Feel With the Mind, Art in the Present Tense, 52^nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, Geffen Center, MoCA LA, CA; Couples Discourse, Palmer Museum of Art, PA; femme brut(e), Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT; Twice Drawn, Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY; Drawn to Cleveland, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH; the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and the Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada, the Kunsthalle Zu Kiel, Germany, installations in the Egyptian Galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the 66^th Street Subway Station at Lincoln Center, NY; Inside the Visible, ICA, Boston, MA, 43^rd Biennial Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, feminimasculin-le Sexe de l’Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Documenta X, Kassel, Germany, Open Ends, MoMA, NY, the Kwangju Biennial, Korea, and Sculptural Prints, the Print Center, Philadelphia, PA, in which Dancer was included. Nancy Spero is represented by Galerie LeLong, NY.



Other artworks by Nancy Spero



Thou Shalt Not Kill, 1987


Goddess, 1987


We Are Pro Choice, 1992


Explicit Explanation, 1998


Ballade von der Judenhure Marie Sanders, 1991


Untitled, 1993