Miss Otis: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

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.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2002
• Created by: Emma Amos, American, 1937 - 2020
• Type: lithographs
• Type: portraits
• Medium: ink on paper with cloth
• Dimensions: H x W: 26 × 20 3/4 in. (66 × 52.7 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Music
• Topic: Violence
• Topic: Women
• Object number: 2020.58.4
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Juanita and Melvin Hardy
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Emma Amos/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS) Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.