3 Mujer Pegada Studies, 1984 and 1985

These three studies relate to a major series of relief sculptures that Neri initiated in the 1980s, including the nine maquettes installed on the opposite side of this gallery. The title, Mujer Pegada, translates from Spanish as “glued” or “attached woman,” referring to the way the female figures appear encased in the walls behind them. Neri reveals the figures in these drawings using both additive and subtractive processes: he builds the images up with oil-stick, thickly applied, and carefully cuts and tears the paper away to articulate certain elements. The distinction between figure and ground is complicated, as the body and the substrate are worked with equal vigor. Fingerprints remind us of the artist’s hand in his process.

-Sidney Simon, PhD ’18