Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Former Chicago artist Nancy Hild’s work reflects a considerable passion for women’s and animal rights issues while displaying a profound technical skill and handling of detail and color in her paintings and drawings. Her series of self-portraits, including I Can’t Believe It and Self-Portrait (Smiley Face) reflect an astonishing self-awareness and a discourse on the role of the female artist within societal tropes. Here, a sardonic smile and bashful forgetfulness provide ribald, tongue-in-cheek commentary about the faces women are instructed to wear, the attitudes they’re required to have, and the necessity and import of motherhood that has run contentiously for decades.