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The Man

The Man

Kay Rosen The Man 1989/1991 Etching in colors on Rives BFK White paper with deckled edge

Edition of 32
Image size: 15 x 20 3/4 inches (38.1 x 52.7 cm)
Paper size: 25 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches (64.8 x 49.5 cm)
Frame size: 29 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches (75.6 x 59.7 cm)
Signed, titled, dated and numbered on reverse in graphite
(Inventory #32828)

THE MAN – takes the viewer/reader through a series of class, gender, racial, professional, and cultural transformations as they submit to the verbal influence of the letter and sound “bee.” The writer Rhonda Lieberman wrote about “The Man” in her article “Recent Painting by Jewish Women in Indiana” which appeared in the September 1993 issue of Art + Text: “The piece has a drag affect to it, implying a kind of linguistic transsexualism, a ‘drag’ through language from a king wannabe to a B.B. King wannabe to a big queen who wanted to be ‘Aunt Bea’ […] The Kay Rosen piece is about ‘The Man’ and his ambitions; yet the structure of the list inexorably turns him into a temporary transsexual, as if the ultimate evolution of ‘The Men’ passes through becoming-woman.” “The Man” has been published and displayed in multiple venues and formats: as an etching, book covers, and wall installations.

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