Untitled #58 1974

Howardena Pindell made this abstract artwork, Untitled #58, with paper and ink. Its meaning resonates deeply with the social and political context in which Pindell created it. Made in the United States, Pindell's work challenges the art world's exclusionary practices. This piece contains small, numbered chads, which might allude to data collection and the ways in which people are reduced to statistics. It may also refer to voting ballots, perhaps commenting on the exclusion of many people from the vote and other forms of civic participation. We can compare it to other artists of her generation whose work took a critical approach to social inequality. Through institutional records and cultural studies, one can better appreciate art as a product of a particular time and place. This kind of research lets us understand how social norms and power structures are reflected in and challenged by artists like Pindell.