Flower Silhouette
date: label: Date
content: 2008
name: label: Artist
content: Ira Blount
notes: label: Caption
content: A flower surrounded by stems and branches supporting eleven mature leaves is the central focus of this image. Though paper silhouettes were common in the 1800s, artist Kara Walker “revived” the medium in the 1990s in her work’s exploration of Blackness, gender, violence, and sexuality. Both the traditional craft and modern revival of silhouetting may have influenced Ira Blount in making this piece. In this image, Blount subverts the rigid gendered assumptions of the nineteenth century by embracing women’s domestic arts and encouraging others to free themselves from the limitations of labels by experiencing the joy of crafting.
label: Caption
content: After moving to Washington, DC following World War II, Ira Blount mastered dozens of artisanal crafts. His love for crafting, learning, and community engagement would endure over the course of his long life and career.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anacostia Community Museum Collection
creditLine: label: Cite As
content: Gift of Ira Blount
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Anacostia Community Museum
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2011.0004.0108
objectType: label: Type
content: papercutting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: paper, graphite
label: Dimensions
content: Frame: 10 1/8 × 12 1/16 × 1 in. (25.7 × 30.7 × 2.5 cm)