Big Daddy Paper Doll

May Stevens, American, 1924 - 2019

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1970

Silkscreen on paper

Sheet: 29 × 42 11/16 in. (73.7 × 108.5 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Ryan Lee Gallery in honor of Patricia Hills and Lucy Lippard

© May Stevens; Courtesy of the estate of the artist and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York

2017.29

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Print

Research Area

Print

Not on view

Label

Stevens presents this print’s central figure as a nude, male paper doll with a bullet-shaped head. The figure is surrounded by several uniforms stereotypically associated with masculinity, including that of the executioner, the soldier, the police officer, and the butcher. Through these prefabricated uniforms, Stevens exposes stereotypical masculinity for what it is: a collection of deeply embedded, interchangeable tropes from which society constructs the very concept of "being a man."

From the 2023 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 110, Constructing the Ideal Soldier, curated by Nathan Savo '24, Class of 1954 Intern

Course History

HIST 2.01, #EverythingHasAHistory, Julia Rabig and Darryl Barthe, Fall 2022

HIST 2.01, #EverythingHasAHistory, Julia Rabig and Darryl Barthe, Fall 2022

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 110, Constructing the Ideal Soldier, Nathan Savo, Class of 2024, Curator, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 7 January - 26 February 2023

Provenance

Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, New York; given to present collection, 2017.

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