About the Work

Akhmatova's Monument is related to Barbara Chase-Riboud's poetry. It presents an idea for a sculpture honoring the much-admired Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, noting Akhmatova's use of nature as a metaphor for the political opposition she experienced as an artist and the suffering of the Russian people under Stalin.
_{—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records}  

From the Artist

This is a line drawing litho in which the color plays a secondary but subtle role—there were six color separations, two shades of black were used and a white under everything was used for luminosity—as this is a sculptor's drawing rather than a painter's, the line and contour rather than color is predominant. The automatic writing in red [includes] the signature of the artist and [explores the] line between written poetry and drawn poetry the image is dedicated to [the] famous woman Russian poet Anna Akhmatova [1889–1966]. She is revered in Russia as the inheritor and continuation of the Alexander Pushkin poetic tradition. The image itself is a translation of the sculptural forms more typical in the artist's itinerary: cast metal (bronze) and silk cords. These two elements, one soft and one hard, interact with each other by transferring the characteristics of one (element) to the other.
_{—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records}