Audrey Flack (American, b. 1931) Eastern Thought Leads to the Self, ca. 1998 Photolithograph on paper Gift of the Artist 1998.24
This work by Audrey Flack is one of a six-print series titled,
Recent Pages from an Ancient Past. Her series employs
archetypal figures such as the artist, a chieftain, and an
Egyptian goddess, to explore stereotypes, identity and social
status. Here, she references her past experience of studying
meditation, Pranayama breathing techniques, and the
Bhagavad-Gita. Though Flack does not identify solely as a
feminist artist, she expressed the necessity for female vision in
the history of art after being ruthlessly critiqued for her
feminist-perceived painting, Jolie Madame. The print, Eastern
Thought Leads to the Self, may be best understood as a
statement of her individuality as both an artist and a woman.