<I>I Made Space for a Good Man</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2009
name: label: Created by
content: Deborah Willis, American, born 1948
label: Printed by
content: The Brandywine Workshop, American, founded 1972
notes: label: Caption
content: When Deborah Willis was an undergraduate at the Philadelphia College of Art one of her professors told her "You're taking up a good man's space, you should not be in this program. All you're going to do is get married, get pregnant, have a baby and a good man could have been in your seat." Reflecting back on this moment later, Willis used self-portraits she created after becoming pregnant soon after graduation to flip the professor's sentiment into a positive - she created space for her son, who is also an artist.
label: Description
content: A color lithograph featuring a film photography triptych of self-portraits by Deborah Willis. The portraits are in black-and-white, with a pink-tinted background, set the against turquoise background of the print. In each portrait, a pregnant Willis sits in a wicker chair next to a closed door. In the first two, she wears a black dress, her eyes cast downward. In the first image, her hands are on her pregnant belly. In the second, another set of hands reach from out of frame to cradle her belly, and Willis holds those hands at the wrist. In the third image, Willis reclines in the chair, nude, looking directly at the camera. In white handwritten script above the images is: “A woman taking space from,” “You took the space from,” and “I made a space for.” In the same script beneath each image is: “a good man.” At the bottom left corner, handwritten in graphite, is [12/28] and in the bottom right corner is [Deborah Willis © 2009].
place: label: Place printed
content: Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Feminism
label: Topic
content: Motherhood
label: Topic
content: Photography
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Juanita and Melvin Hardy
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2020.58.2
objectType: label: Type
content: lithographs
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Deborah Willis
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: ink on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 14 3/4 × 29 1/2 in. (37.5 × 74.9 cm)