Baby Block Bouquet 1981

Miriam Schapiro made this heart-shaped artwork, Baby Block Bouquet, by layering floral and geometric patterns. It’s so her, right? The way she fearlessly mixed what had been deemed ‘women’s work’ with high art. Imagine Schapiro in her studio, surrounded by fabrics and papers, arranging and rearranging these elements. It's like she’s composing a visual poem. The blocks around the edge almost look like pixels, and they create this amazing tension with the floral patterns inside. There’s the physical act of cutting, pasting, and layering, all of which speaks to me. I love how this piece challenges our preconceived notions of what art can be. Schapiro was definitely in dialogue with so many artists, from the pattern and decoration movement to the feminist art movement. She reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation across time, that artists are always building on each other's ideas. It’s a lineage of inspiration, and Schapiro is a crucial figure in it.