Our doors may be closed but we’re “open” online. Philomena Marano, studio assistant to artist Robert Indiana, joins us online via Zoom for a discussion with MFA’s Associate Curator of Public Programs Margaret Murray about the unique medium of paper used to create costume and sets for The Mother of Us All (1976).

This online event is free but registration is required and will be limited to 50 participants. Register by clicking here.

Robert Indiana’s work on The Mother of Us All is featured in the special exhibition Art of the Stage: Picasso to Hockney. The opera was a Bicentennial project and a collaboration between Gertrude Stein and composer Virgil Thomson. It tells the story of Susan B. Anthony’s fight for women’s suffrage as it mixes characters, fictional and non-fictional, from different time periods in American History. The maquettes in papier colle (or cut paper), a medium well suited to express the early American art form popular during the time in which the story unravels.

Artist Philomena Marano holds a BFA from Pratt Institute, created the winning poster for the first Spirit of Brooklyn poster competition, and is a master of papier collé, the elegant cut paper technique she learned as a studio assistant to preeminent artist Robert Indiana. Her work has been exhibited in numerous New York galleries and represented in private, corporate and museum collections, including the Brooklyn Museum.

Photo: Courtesy of Jody Dole; Philo & Robert Indiana in front of cut paper “Speaker Platform” maquette at Galerie Denise Rene for The Mother of Us All (1976)

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