PETAH COYNE (American, born 1953) Untitled #978 Gertrude and Juliana (The Whitney Women), 1999-2000 Mixed media 144 x 206 x 53" (365.8 x 523.2 x 134.6 cm.) Anonymous gift in honor of Marian Griffiths, 2001

This large sculptural relief was an anonymous gift to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in honor of Marian Griffiths, former director of the Sculpture Center, New York. It is a massive, plaster-coated wall into which two, almost life-size, religious statues of the Virgin Mary wearing long, pleated cloaks have been embedded. It was originally made for the 2000 Whitney Biennial. The artist affectionately refers to this work as "the Whitney girls" because the two female figures are the two women who began the Whitney Museum of American Art: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, its founder and patron, and Juliana Force, the Whitney’s first director. However, these figures represent more than two individual women, and although they are pre-fabricated religious statues of the Virgin Mary, they are not intended as strictly religious images either. Based on memories of a strict Catholic upbringing and strongly rooted in feminist values, this piece is a multi-layered meditation on women, spirituality, and humanity.

Petah Coyne is extremely sensitive to the placement and lighting of her work. She selected the location for this piece in response to the architecture of Clifton Hall, creating an area behind it, bathed in natural light, where viewers are invited to walk. Both sides of the installation must be accessed to fully experience this sculpture.

The artist has explained it this way:

"I love 'the front' of this sculpture, its presentation of quiet and beauty. But if I had to "hang out," the back is where you would find me. Its unfinished roughness is closer to the world in which we actually live. It holds all the intimacy of a conversation, or the closeness felt in a beauty parlor as you slowly talk and some how are comforted by the touching of your hair. In this private back area, all can be said and forgiven (not unlike the old confessionals in the Catholic Church). It is a small space, full of light and hope, the same one I still hold out for the world- at-large."

- Jennifer Bayles, Educator for Special Projects