© President and Fellows of Harvard College
Gallery Text
In Pee Body, sculptor Kiki Smith explores the female
body and its private performance of basic functions.
Concerned with interior biological processes of waste
and regeneration, Smith subverts the Western
sculptural tradition of the eroticized female form. Here
the un-idealized life-size body of a woman, molded in
sweet-smelling beeswax, crouches on the gallery floor
with sparkling yellow beads streaming out behind her.
The earthy subject is tempered by its delicate
materials — wax and glass. The bowed head and folded
arms suggest an introspective and vulnerable state, as
our voyeuristic encounter with the crouched woman
quietly insists we consider what constitutes improper
behavior in communal space: is it the figure who
publicly displays a private act, or the viewer who
violates that privacy?
1 of 5
Identification and Creation
Object Number
1997.82
People
Kiki Smith, American (Nuremberg, Germany born 1954)
Title
Pee Body
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
1992
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Location
Level 1, Room 1120, Modern and Contemporary Art,
Contemporary Art: Body/Politic
View this object's location on our interactive map
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Wax and glass beads (23 strands of varying lengths, 1'
to over 15' long)
2 of 5
Dimensions
68.6 x 71.1 x 71.1 cm (27 x 28 x 28 in.)
Provenance
Kiki Smith, created 1992; [Fawbush Gallery, New York,
NY]sold;to private collector, Barbara Fish Lee, and
Fogg Art Museum, 1997.
Note: Barbara Lee made a gift of her portion in 2014.
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum,Gift of Barbara
Lee, Promised gift of Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Purchase
in part from the Joseph A. Baird, Jr., Francis H. Burr
Memorial and Director's Acquisition Funds
Copyright
© Kiki Smith
Accession Year
1997
Object Number
1997.82
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
3 of 5
Publication History
Kiki Smith: Silent Work, exh. cat., Austrian Museum of
Applied Arts (Vienna, Austria, 1992), pps. 52, 74-75,
illustrated in color (incorrectly titled Lot's Wife)
Barbara Pollack, "Leaping off the Pedestal", Art News
(June 1998), p. 107, color repro.
A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions by the
Harvard University Art Museums, exh. cat., Harvard
University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring
2000), pp. 95-96, ill. (color)
David Bjelajac, American Art: A Cultural History,
Prentice Hall, Inc. (2005), p. 458
Stephan Wolohojian, ed., Harvard Art Museum/
Handbook, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, MA,
2008), p. 245, ill.
Francesca Herndon-Consagra and Sydney Jane
Norton, Dreamscapes, exh. cat., Pulitzer Arts
Foundation (St. Louis, Missouri, 2011), pp. 9-10, Main
Gallery Stairs section, three consecutive pages, ill.
(color).
Exhibition History
Dreamscapes, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis,
02/11/2011 - 08/13/2011
32Q: 1120 Contemporary Art: Body/Politic , Harvard Art
Museums, Cambridge, 11/01/2014 - 10/13/2016
This record was created from historic documentation
and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may
be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are
frequently revised and enhanced. For more information
please contact the Division of Modern and
Contemporary Art at
4 of 5
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Generated on October 2, 2016 at 01:50pm
5 of 5