Incognito 

Curator: Here we have Miriam Schapiro’s *Incognito*, a work crafted with mixed media and acrylic paint, very much speaking to her neo-pop aesthetic. My immediate sense is of a masked ball; there’s such energy bursting forth, an almost dizzying kaleidoscope of color, and the figure feels... poised. Editor: Dizzying is absolutely the word. I think about the political undercurrent of celebrating art from a uniquely feminine viewpoint. But look how she uses patterns—almost hiding, but drawing you in—in this almost graffiti style. It’s a declaration of reclaiming the traditionally “feminine” space of craft and pushing it boldly into high art. Curator: Yes, that reclaiming is powerful here. It challenges, or rather, outright refutes, the idea of the feminine as fragile or delicate. There is incredible strength here, even defiance, in this so-called "incognito" state. Almost as if to say, “I can be visible and unseen at once.” It speaks volumes, doesn't it, about the historical invisibility of women artists. Editor: Precisely! The "Pattern and Decoration" movement, of which Schapiro was a leading voice, actively critiqued those art world hierarchies, and you can really see the echoes of pop art—that visual accessibility that makes a strong statement, even if that statement is to confront what the establishment wants from its art. Curator: What's especially potent is the mask isn't a disguise at all, it’s an illumination! It makes you consider that a woman can embrace and flaunt a persona to survive, but that the joy remains. And I wonder if we read too much into her wearing green shoes? Editor: Perhaps! Though history has taught me not to underestimate color. Miriam is inviting you to play with all the ways in which a woman can reinvent the accepted version of herself. To me, she’s more alive and energetic than if you’d left her on some canvas doing a normal woman’s thing. It reminds me that power comes in all sorts of costumes, darling!