Mother and Child

Njideka Akunyili Crosby

2016 · Acrylic, transfer printing, colored pencil, cut and pasted paper, and printed fabric on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

Akunyili Crosby, who lives and works in Los Angeles, sits facing a picture of her maternal grandmother holding the artist’s youngest aunt. The decorative terrazzo floor is built from solvent transfers of a mix of other family photographs and images from popular culture, while the wallpaper behind the double portrait is made of a fabric that commemorates the artist’s mother, Dora Akunyili (1954–2014), a revered public servant who led Nigerian government efforts to prosecute counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Akunyili Crosby was expecting her own first child as she worked on this picture and had also recently lost her mother, making this work a vibrant and moving paean to generations of family ties across oceans and time.

Artist

Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Date

2016

Medium

Acrylic, transfer printing, colored pencil, cut and pasted paper, and printed fabric on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Purchase, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation Gift, 2017