The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa Artist: Audrey Flack (American, born 1931, B.F.A. 1952)

2012

Prints and Drawings

By appointment, Duffy Study Room

Part of a body of work featuring historically misrepresented heroines, Audrey Flack’s image of Saint Theresa derives from Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s famous Baroque sculpture of the saint. Just as she did in Lady Madonna (1980.66.1), Flack focused on the saint’s face in The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. She added a flying, phallic lipstick and an erotic quotation—a double entendre of sexual and spiritual ecstasy—from the saint’s autobiography. The resulting image challenges traditional depictions of Saint Theresa as, in Flack’s words, "a middle-aged de-sexualized nun" and instead portrays her as "a beautiful vibrant young woman in the throes of intense passionate feelings."

Medium

Screenprint

Dimensions

image: 22 9/16 × 16 in. (57.3 × 40.7 cm)
sheet: 29 1/8 × 22 1/16 in. (73.9 × 56.1 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of the Experimental Printmaking Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Press

Accession Number

2014.50.1

Geography

Made in United States

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Prints

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Acquired directly from printer
Bibliography
  • Lisa Hodermarsky et al., On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2021), 14, 63, 80, 82–83, 156, no. 9, fig. 2
  • "Acquisitions 2014," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin: Online Supplement (accessed December 1, 2014),
Object copyright
Copyright Audrey Flack
In Copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

screen prints

Subject

Women artists

Edition

72/75

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF

Open in Mirador

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