When I took my first lap around the eighth floor of the Whitney Museum, I lingered at this painting. Emma Amos, the artist, is quoted as saying, “Every time I think about color, it’s a political statement.”
Baby. This piece is part of Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s. It’s the color combinations that got me. Tropical pairings. One body split on the canvas. Or is it separate/different bodies? Is she wearing sunglasses or are her eyes wide WIDE open? A halo of sun radiating from her head. And the blue polka dot top. It feels very sixties.
The Whitney docent described Amos as the first and only female in the Spiral artist collective. I later learned she is a native Atlantan. That was enough to sell me.
The Jam 