15 Facts About Nancy Spero

Nancy Spero was an American visual artist known for her political and feminist paintings and hand pulled prints.

Nancy Spero is known for her continuous engagement with contemporary political, social, and cultural concerns.

Nancy Spero chronicled wars and apocalyptic violence as well as articulating visions of ecstatic rebirth and the celebratory cycles of life.

Nancy Spero's complex network of collective and individual voices was a catalyst for the creation of her figurative lexicon representing women from prehistory to the present in such epic-scale paintings and collage on paper as Torture of Women, Notes in Time on Women and The First Language.

Nancy Spero has had a number of retrospective exhibitions at major museums.

In Florence and Ischia, Nancy Spero became intrigued by the format, style and mood of Etruscan and Roman frescoes and sarcophagi which would have influence on her later work.

Nancy Spero's third son was born in Paris, and the artist had major solo exhibitions in Paris at Galerie Breteau in 1962,1964, and 1968.

In 1974, Nancy Spero chose to focus on themes involving women and their representation in various cultures.

Nancy Spero re-presented previously obscured women's histories, cultural mythology, and literary references with her expressive figuration.

Nancy Spero manifested a desire for women to be a part of the art conversation.

Nancy Spero's open-ended, thought provoking compositions of ruthless uncomfortable subject matter was depicted in hangings and friezes.

Nancy Spero uses the crimes and assaults on women from all eras and cultures to provide intense and emotional imagery for her art and text.

Harnessing a capacious imaginative energy and a ferocious will, Nancy Spero continued to mine the full range of power relations.

Nancy Spero died of heart failure in Manhattan on October 18,2009.

Nancy Spero is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York.