Ruth Dealy

Blue Bra
Now On View

Maker

Ruth Dealy (American, b.1947 in Boston), (RISD BFA 1971, Painting; RISD MFA 1973, Painting)

Title

Blue Bra

Year

1990-1993

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

acrylic paint

Supports

Dimensions

127.3 x 127.3 x 3.5 cm (50 1/8 x 50 1/8 x 1 3/8 inches) Dimensions verified - Painting inventory project 06/01/05

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signature: Signed on verso:R. Dealy

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of J. Scott Burns

Object Number

1994.106

Type

Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 17: Variance

This issue complements the RISD Museum exhibition Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability, on view through October 9, 2022.

Exhibition History

Art and Design from 1900 to Now
Jun 04, 2022 – Dec 01, 2030

Label copy

In Blue Bra, Ruth Dealy depicts herself confidently clutching her chest. The texture of the painting accumulates in her face, where the ferocity and speed of her brushstrokes produces a tension between what is seen and what is felt. Like many of Dealy’s works, Blue Bra raises questions about how and what the body intuits with senses other than sight. At the time Dealy created the self-portrait, she was beginning to lose her vision due to a chronic eye condition. She has come to treat painting as a practice of unlearning and relearning: “I make portraits because I am in search of where I live, and that is always changing.”

–Willa Sheehan (RISD BFA 2026, Painting), THAD fellow 2024

Sign Language
Twentieth-Century Painting from the Permanent Collection
Jun 23, 2000 – Oct 29, 2000
Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art
Jul 07, 1995 – Sep 02, 1995

Image use

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In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Ruth Dealy (American, b.1947 in Boston)
Blue Bra, 1990-1993
Acrylic with metallic pigments on canvas
127.3 x 127.3 x 3.5 cm (50 1/8 x 50 1/8 x 1 3/8 inches) Dimensions verified - Painting inventory project 06/01/05
Gift of J. Scott Burns 1994.106

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