Moody Blue Girl

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Moody Blue Girl

Artist Carrie Mae Weems (American, born 1953)

Date1997

Dimensions30 × 30 in. (76.2 × 76.2 cm)
Frame: 30 15/16 × 30 15/16 × 1 1/2 in. (78.6 × 78.6 × 3.8 cm)

MediumSilver print with text on mat

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2017.18

Not on View

Label TextMoody Blue Girl stems from Carrie Mae Weems’ series Colored People of 1989–90 that features hand-tinted photographic portraits of African American adolescents. Each image in this series has a background tone that corresponds to titles such as Blue, Black, Boy and High, Yella, Girl. With this imagery, Weems celebrates the vibrant diversity of skin color—the many shades of Black—among African Americans. At the same time, she highlights the artificiality of these naming traditions and calls attention to the existence of a color-based caste system. A MacArthur “Genius Award” recipient internationally recognized for her artistic practice informed by social and political activism, Weems often uses familiar language—jokes, songs, puns—to scrutinize issues of race, class, and gender identity and to expose stereotypes. Her work in photography, video, and installation/performance frequently re-inserts the experiences of commonly overlooked individuals or groups into the historical record.Exhibition HistoryNew York, Guggenheim Museum, Three Decades of Photography and Video, 2014.

Toledo Museum of Art, PICTURE ID: Contemporary African American Works on Paper, March 14-June 14, 2020.