<I>Miss Otis</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2002
name: label: Created by
content: Emma Amos, American, 1937 - 2020
notes: label: Caption
content: Emma Amos was a postmodernist figurative painter and printmaker. She was a feminist artist whose work often challenged racism and sexism in modern society. Inspired by the 1934 Cole Porter tune, “Miss Otis Regrets,” this print is based on a similar acrylic on linen painting by Amos also titled Miss Otis Regrets (2002). The song tells the tale of Miss Otis, who awoke to find herself abandoned by her lover. After locating him, she shoots him and is arrested before an angry mob drags her from jail and lynches her. The song opens and closes with the lyrics “Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today.”
label: Description
content: A color lithograph with a collaged fabric border, depicting a woman, “Miss Otis.” She appears in the center of the print, looking over her proper left shoulder towards the viewer. She wears a red, floral-print top with thin straps and lace trim, earrings, and a ring on her right hand, which grips her left arm. Her lips and nails are painted bright red. She is surrounded by a bright yellow aura, set within a larger blue field with feminine and colorful lips, tongues, and eyes scattered around. Directly above the woman is a row of black bars. A gun appears to the left and one of the tongues is pierced by a sword at lower right. At the bottom of the image is “MISS OTIS.” The artist has put the edition [3/25] and signed and dated the print [Emma Amos 2002] directly below the blue field, within a slim margin of white at the corners and blocks of orange at the center of each of the four sides. The outer margins have been covered with strips of cloth in two different striped patterns in shades of yellow, orange, red, and blue.
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Music
label: Topic
content: Violence
label: Topic
content: Women
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: 2020.58.4
objectType: label: Type
content: lithographs
label: Type
content: portraits
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Emma Amos/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS)
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: ink on paper with cloth
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 26 × 20 3/4 in. (66 × 52.7 cm)