About the Work
The Roses references the famous rose in Sleeping Beauty upon which the princess pricks her finger, falling asleep until saved by her true love. A softer, more sensual image than some of Amer’s other work, the artist seems to imply that in sleep, there is freedom, and in freedom, there is erotic love.
About the Artist
Ghada Amer is best known for her large-scale, hand-embroidered paintings of seemingly abstract lines that resolve into repetitive patterns of highly erotic figures and scenes. Born in Cairo, Egypt, raised in France from the age of 11, and currently living and working in New York, Amer’s practice is very much grounded in both the Muslim and the Western World. By exploring the differences between the two, she is able to unveil universal truths that are prevalent in all cultures, including the oppression of women, the incomprehensibility of love, the foolishness of war, and an overall quest for beauty.
Widely acclaimed when they debuted at the 2000 Whitney Biennial, Amer’s paintings subvert the male-dominated language of Abstract Expressionism by embroidering iconic works from that period with images appropriated from pornographic magazines and Disney films. This combination forces an examination of women’s role in Western and Islamic culture.
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