2.1 Resonance and Reverberation in Maud Sulter’s MUSEUM

Maud Sulter’s MUSEUM (1990) comprises three large square colour photographic prints, each of which extracts and enlarges a detail from John Collier’s painting, The Death of Cleopatra (1890, Gallery Oldham). A quotation from Gertrude Stein is affixed to each frame.

The gallery commissioned Sulter (19602008), a multidisciplinary Black woman artist, curator, poet and historian to create an artwork that would respond to the gallery’s entire collection. Given free rein to explore the stores, she selected the pride of the gallery, Collier’s massive painting measuring 3.95 x 3.15 metres (12’11” x 10’ 4”).