Are Those Pearls or Tears, My Beloved One
| Artist | María Magdalena Campos-Pons (born Cuba, based in Nashville, Tennessee, b. 1959) |
|---|---|
| Title | Are Those Pearls or Tears, My Beloved One |
| Date | 2008 |
| Medium | Etching, aquatint, and and drypoint on paper |
| Dimensions | Image: 23 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. (60.3 x 45.1 cm) Plate: 23 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. (60.3 x 45.1 cm) Sheet: 30 7/8 x 22 7/16 in. (78.4 x 57 cm) |
| Credit Line | Gift of Dr. Jane Fortune, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 2019.13 |
| This artwork is currently off display. You may be able to see this artwork by filling out an art viewing room request. | |
A young person faces out toward a body of water. Long leafy shapes emerge from their shoulder bag, taking up the lower half of the composition.
Raised on a Cuban sugar plantation, María Magdalena Campos-Pons—who has Nigerian, Chinese, and Hispanic lineage—frequently references diasporic history and feminism in her artwork. This print (the first work by the artist in our collection) relates to the drawing, Thinking of It. Like much of Campos-Pons’s work it includes iconography of the sea, both in reference to her family’s history of slavery and her own migration to the United States. Suggesting a mixture of loss and longing, a young girl looks toward the horizon, while tethered to the beach by long vegetative forms. A small bell with tiny footprints hints at her childhood. The plants may also reference rituals of Santeria, Candomblé, or Yoruba religions.
| Printer | SMFA at Tufts University, Boston |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Harvard University Art Museums |
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Are Those Pearls or Tears, My Beloved One
| Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=2019.13