NANCY SPERO
TORTURE OF WOMEN
Siglio
(April 2010)
Made almost thirty years ago Nancy Spero's Torture of Women is a seminal work in the history of contemporary art. A model of how appropriated words and images from multiple sources can be spliced and shaped into a forceful, coherent statement about the sexual, social, political, and existential dilemmas and dynamics of the modern world, Spero's piece is at the same time among the most significant precursors of the intertextual practices that are are now regarded as quintessentially post-modern. Alas, the on-going abuse of women in places where they openly contest patriarchy or are the unruly targets of its authoritarian impulses means that Torture of Women is every bit as current as it was when it was first made. Someday the hatred and cruelty inscribed in Spero's work may be a thing of the past, but so long as they blight the world, and so long as women confront state violence with the courage that Spero also commemorates, this work will be a testament to the fact that committed art can speak truth to power and does so most effectively when speaking with the greatest formal, theoretical and poetic sophistication.
--Robert Storr
Nancy Spero was an artist who made work because a principle motivated her and not because the market beckoned. Her work is physically substantial and full of detail. It's the kind of art that lives extra-poorly in JPEG and that is often too delicate or too light-sensitive to be on regular view.
