Images(2)

Becoming

Artist Ursula Mathers (San Francisco, California, USA)

Date2021

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: 50.6 × 50.6cm

AcquisitionCommissioned in 2020 by Aberdeen Art Gallery using the prize money from the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2020 award.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDMS095679.2

Keywords

Micro Commissions

About MeItalian- American artist Ursula Mathers approached this project as a woman, a mother and a feminist. She described how being awarded this micro-commission helped her emerge from a ‘creative Covid dip’.
Becoming has grown out of Mather’s investigation into historical depictions of women’s work and the contemporary female aesthetic. The diptych responds to two artworks in Aberdeen’s collection, Tracy Emin’s prominent neon heart For You and Barbara Hepworth’s Meditation. Mather’s describes each as representing the impression of woman.
Becoming merges a caring full form with joyful delicate lines, celebrating woman by reconciling abstract differences, in colour, form, texture and concept. The title, inspired by philosophers Deleuze and Guattari’s ‘becoming-woman’, speaks to this potential in human nature, of always being in flux but striving towards balance.