Untitled
Artist
Gilda Snowden
(American, 1954-2014)
Datec. 1987
MediumEncaustic, pigment, newspaper on wood
Dimensions48 × 43 × 1 1/2 in. (121.9 × 109.2 × 3.8 cm)
ClassificationsPainting / Collage
Credit LineGift of the Gilda Snowden Estate, 2018
Object numberUAC6631
DescriptionGilda Snowden was a beloved artist, educator, curator, and native Detroiter. Born in 1954, she grew up in northwest Detroit and graduated from Cass Technical High School before attending Wayne State University for BFA, MA, and MFA degrees, all awarded by 1979. Snowden was closely associated with the Cass Corridor movement throughout the later 1970s and 80s; though she was trained primarily as a painter, she operated across media and developed a “scavenger” praxis to explore a diversity of styles, processes, and materials.
Snowden’s statement that “Art has a lot more power when people have to fight to get the message” seems to relate directly to collaged encaustic works like Untitled, part of a body of work to which she returned frequently. For example, the material nature of Untitled obscures The Detroit News clippings layered below the wax containing its orange, red, and brown pigments. Some blue drips of paint draw the eye: Is that a picture of Jesse Jackson? He ran for president in 1984 and 1988, so what might the article say? Elsewhere, words like “CELEBRATE,” “OUR BEST,” “CHEVY,” and “TYPEWRITER” peek through, as do various coupons, telephone numbers, and other pictures. The underlying board loosely resembles the ridged profile of a person’s face, and through this interpretative lens, the reappropriated imagery and swirling paint suggests mental interiority. Are we witnessing a record of daily encounters, anxious thoughts, hopes, and mundane to-dos? What rises to the top? In that sense, this Untitled artwork is like a large (48 inch) page from Snowden’s diary. She offers a glimpse but interrupts and makes us construct our own associations. Perhaps we derive our own reflective knowledge and power from here; as Betsey Hansell confirmed in 1986, “Most of [Snowden’s] work
contains secrets only known to her.” Yet this work can help us learn our own secrets.
Among her many community posts, Snowden was a storied arts professor at the College for Creative Studies; for decades she nurtured thousands of emerging artists and served as a pillar of the city’s arts and culture scene. Snowden’s premature death in 2014 left the community reeling, but her legacy lives on through her work (shown in numerous exhibitions, collected institutionally and privately, and the subject of Detroit-area public art projects), her mentorships and relationships, as well as opportunities that have materialized in her honor (such as the Kresge Gilda Awards).
Written by Sarah Teppen
1 http://corridortribe.com/obits/gilda_snowden.htm
2 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gilda-snowden-dead-dies_n_5793852
3Betsy Hansell, "Her challenging art has layers of secrets," Detroit Free Press, December 4, 1986, 135.
4Betsy Hansell, "Her challenging art has layers of secrets," Detroit Free Press, December 4, 1986, 135.
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