Paper

circa 2008

30 in

30 in

WhiteBlackGreenPurpleBlueYellowOrange

She Contains Multitudes (2020)

Inklandia: Contemporary Prints (2008)

Cultural/Historical Context

Cornucopia Wanda Ewing (1970 – 2013) Linocut, 2007 Nebraska-born artist Wanda Ewing was a printmaker, painter, multimedia, and fiber artist, best known for her provocative series of pinups Black as Pitch, Hot as Hell. Her work examines black female representation, identity, sexuality, beauty standards, empowerment, and objectification. Her work is often comical in nature, but under the surface brews a biting social commentary that confronts and unsettles the viewer. In Cornucopia Ewing renders the lower half of a black female birthing an abundance of flowers in bright Pop Art-esque colors, calling to mind Mother Nature or Mother Earth. Cornucopia is part of a larger series featuring the truncated bodies of black women in various poses and expressions. The series was inspired by Ewing’s chance encounter with a collection of antique porcelain half-dolls with impossibly tiny waists. Their forms spoke to Ewing’s own explorations of unrealistic female beauty standards and their effects and demands on black women’s bodies and hair.