Nancy Spero: a continuous present

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As early as the 1960s, Nancy Spero's work was breaking ranks with the establishment. Her unique pictorial vocabulary and insistent political engagement diverged sharply from the styles of abstraction that dominated the American art world at that time. She articulated themes of significant social concern, protesting against the Vietnam War, societal alienation, and violence against women, including the persecution of Jewish women under National Socialism and the historical contexts of witch hunts. A Continuous Present pairs her War Series (1966-70), a cycle of anti-Vietnam War gouaches, with an overview of her work from the last decade. Between 1992 and 2001, Spero created seemingly infinite works on long horizontal and vertical bands of paper, a format inspired by Egyptian papyrus rolls, Chinese scroll painting, and antique friezes. These works are populated with female figures drawn from mythology, various epochs, and diverse cultures, infusing them with feminist momentum through highly charged or parodistic confrontations.