Kiss on a Rope

Artist Alison Saar (American, born 1956)

Date2001

MediumColor woodcut

DimensionsImage: 49 1/2 × 22 inches (125.7 × 55.9 cm);
Frame: 53 7/8 × 26 3/8 × 1 3/4 inches (136.8 × 67 × 4.4 cm)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineThe Print and Artist's Book Collection of Phyllis Goody Cohen, Class of 1957

Terms

Prints
Color woodcut
Couples
Kissing
Ropes
American

Object number2002.002.001

Label CopyAlison Saar’s woodcuts emerge from a re-examination of earlier works; she has described them as “portraits of my sculpture.” The artist began making woodcuts in the 1980s from readily available objects, and some were created out of busted dresser drawers. The paper, though very fragile, purposely resembles human skin. Kiss on a Rope’s forceful imagery, roughly hewn character, and lack of setting reinforce a history in three dimensions. Strung on a frayed rope, the decapitated heads kiss while stacked and knotted together. For over thirty years, Saar has worked with themes of the African diaspora, global spirituality and mythology, and race relations. While Kiss on a Rope suspends a moment of passion, in proximity to Robert Gober’s Hanging Man/Sleeping Man, it also appears as a moment of violence. ("This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection" cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 - April 12, 2015)