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Alison Saar

Black Snake Blues, 1994

Description

Maker

Title

Black Snake Blues

Year

1994

Medium

Color offset lithograph on paper

Dimensions

Image/sheet: 55.2 x 75.6 cm (21 3/4 x 29 3/4 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Inscribed in graphite on recto LL: 52/70; Inscribed in graphite on recto LC:Black Snake Blues; Inscribed in graphite on recto LL: Alison Saar 1994; Brandywine blind-stamp in LL corner

Identification

Edition

52/70

Type

Credit

Georgianna Sayles Aldrich Fund

Object Number

2014.66.44

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Drawing Conclusions

January 22 - September 25, 2016

The title of this piece is taken from the song “Black Snake Blues,” first recorded by Victoria Spivey in 1926 and better known by Blind Lemon Jefferson’s 1927 version, “Black Snake Moan.” The song’s themes of longing and loss color this evocative lithograph of a woman lying on a bed cupping her breast, her eyes vacant, with a snake coiled beside her. The relationship between the woman and the creature remains ambiguous, but it suggests sexual desire as well as Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Black Snake Blues with the accession number of 2014.66.44. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.