Nancy Spero

Nancy Spero wants her art to be understood, but not so easily that you only need a few seconds to know what's going on. 

Spero creates her art through the use of paper, paint, fabric, and metal. 

Many of Spero's pieces have to do with politics. A good portion of her works are about wars and the consequences of them. Spero's art is also a protest against inequality and abuse of all sorts. Her pieces are seen as feminist as well since she often depicts women and women's issues in her work. 

Spero's pieces range from small to big. At first, she would do smaller works to counter balance the bigger works men were doing during that time. However, she gradually shifted to bigger, longer works that circumnavigated an entire room. Spero's representative pieces also have a messy quality to them with either a lot of white space or one or two colors dominating the background. Repetition plays a part in Spero's art as well, with the same character appearing multiple times in a single piece. These and other characters are also clearly defined by line. 

When asked why she does art, Spero simply replies, "What isn't a reason for doing art?"  This response, in essence, should be the reply of every artist.

Information provided by:

"Nancy Spero." Art21. PBS, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.