23 individual prints (collectively referred to as "The Beauties") printed intaglio style from ironing boards flattened and distressed to the artist's approval. The name of each board (Bertha Mae, Bessie, Calpurnia, Carolina, Clara Esther, Emma, Eva Mae, Ida Mae, Jane, Jesse Mae, Jonny Mae, Lilly, Lucy, Lula Bell, Mammy, Matti Lee, Pearl, Rose, Ruth, Saphire, Sarah, Willy Mae, Zeddie) was relief printed, bottom center, in a medium gray from a photopolymer plate. While originally conceived by the artist as a body of work, they were made available as individuals. Some inking variation between impressions due to the nature of the matrix are indicated by the inscription EV—variant edition.

Copyright %C2%A9 Willie Cole%2C published by Highpoint Editions

Jonny Mae, 2012

expand_more
Not on Viewexpand_more

Wille Cole is widely recognized for his extraordinary capacity to convert ordinary objects into evocative works of art. In the intaglio and relief print Jonny Mae, Cole transforms an image resembling a household ironing board into a powerful metaphor for the historical role of Black women serving as “domestic help.” The print is part of an extended series of similar prints known as “The Beauties” that alludes to real and fictional members of Cole’s ancestral family who toiled as domestic workers, either as enslaved or free women. For Cole, the ironing board motif is emblematic of the drudgery and harsh reality of ceaseless household labor, while also recalling the form of a monument or tombstone, traditional ways of marking or measuring one’s life. The elongated images also resemble standing human figures, their individuality fixed by the assigned names and unique visual and textural characteristics of each ironing board.

In the production of this large-scale intaglio and relief print, Cole rejected the conventional method of printing an image from an etched or engraved copper plate, and instead ingeniously adapted an actual ironing board (flattened under a steam roller) to serve as an unorthodox printing plate. Though generating technical challenges, the procedure eliminates one layer of intervention, resulting in a printed image that is in all respects visually truthful to the physical characteristics of each ironing board in the series. Despite its humble source material, the black-and-white print possesses a strangely luminous aura, evoking a quasi-historical narrative that reveals the unseen story of Jonny Mae.

file_downloadprintshare
arrow_back home
Details
Title
Jonny Mae
Artist Life
born 1955
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2020.85.24.11
Provenance
Highpoint Editions, Minneapolis (publisher); sold to MIA, 2020.
Curator Approved

This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.

Does something look wrong with this image? Let us know

Zoom in on the left to the detail you'd like to save. Click 'Save detail' and wait until the image updates. Right click the image to 'save image as' or copy link, or click the image to open in a new tab.

23 individual prints (collectively referred to as "The Beauties") printed intaglio style from ironing boards flattened and distressed to the artist's approval. The name of each board (Bertha Mae, Bessie, Calpurnia, Carolina, Clara Esther, Emma, Eva Mae, Ida Mae, Jane, Jesse Mae, Jonny Mae, Lilly, Lucy, Lula Bell, Mammy, Matti Lee, Pearl, Rose, Ruth, Saphire, Sarah, Willy Mae, Zeddie) was relief printed, bottom center, in a medium gray from a photopolymer plate. While originally conceived by the artist as a body of work, they were made available as individuals. Some inking variation between impressions due to the nature of the matrix are indicated by the inscription EV—variant edition.

Copyright © Willie Cole, published by Highpoint Editions