Sites Unscene

Gladys Nilsson

2001

hard ground etching with aquatint on paper

22" x 30"

Clothed in period garb, the figures in this etching feast and float behind a trellis laden with hop vines. This work was part of a portfolio created to celebrate the Sesquicentennial anniversary of Wisconsin’s founding. Nilsson alludes to twentieth-century European migrant woman, who traveled to America on boats, arriving to “sites unseen,” and settled in the Midwest. The four figures sitting at the table eat hamburgers and sundaes, culinary delicacies created in the early twentieth century. The man swimming in the stream, the laurel crowns worn by the women in the boat, and the celebratory air of the revelers give this work a pastoral feel, though a cityscape looms behind the trees.

Credit

Gift of Thomas Jackson and Family