A Splendid Soil I
Scherezade García, American (born Dominican Republic), born 1966
2023
Acrylic, pigment, charcoal, and ink on linen
Overall: 82 × 54 in. (208.3 × 137.2 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Virginia and Preston T. Kelsey 1958 Fund
2024.9
Geography
Place Made: Dominican Republic, North America
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
On view
Label
Dominican American artist Scherezade García creates artworks that reflect on the themes of home, identity, and memory for Caribbean peoples living in diaspora. In this piece, a pink flotation device carries a figure through a watery world. The lifesaver suggests the perils of seeking a new home across the open waters, as well as the possibilities and challenges of the journey to come.
As this figure moves through the water, she cultivates a beautiful and lush landscape signified by the florals in the margins of the composition. These flowers emphasize her ability to establish roots in a new home while paying homage to her ancestors. García’s calligraphic gestures scattered throughout the florals and lace evoke Arabic script, emphasizing the entanglements between the multiple and diverse diasporic communities who have shaped the Americas in the wake of Spanish colonization.
From the 2024 exhibition Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
English 39.01, American Fiction: 1950-1990, Kimberly Brown, Winter 2025
Latin American and Caribbean Studies 45.02, Borderlands in the Americas, Jorge Cuellar, Winter 2025
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2025
Spanish 3.01, Spanish III, Natalia Monetti, Spring 2025
Spanish 3.02, Spanish III, Natalia Monetti, Spring 2025
Latin American and Caribbean Studies 20.16, Anthropology 12.19, Sociology 43.01, Latino Roots & Transitions, Christina Gomez, Summer 2025
Spanish 3.01, Spanish III, Mauricio Acuna, Summer 2025
Anthropology 31.01, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 36.01, Gender in Cross Cultural Perspectives, Sabrina Billings, Fall 2025
Exhibition History
Beyond the Bouquet: Arranging Flowers in American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 18, 2024 - late 2025.
Provenance
The artist; Praxis Gallery, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2024.
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