Without Feather Boa

Without Feather Boa — Emma Amos. 1965.

Medium: color etching and aquatint. Dimensions: Support: 81.9 x 62.4 x 0.2 cm (32 1/4 x 24 9/16 x 1/16 in.); Image: 76.8 x 57.5 cm (30 1/4 x 22 5/8 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Emma Amos used the creative potential of printmaking to address issues of race, gender, and social inequity. This print features a self-portrait in which the artist appears topless, gazing directly at the viewer through a pair of opaque sunglasses. Its varied patterning suggests Amos’s training in fabric design, as well as her interest in experimenting with and developing her own methods of etching. Amos selected the work to be included in the first and only exhibition of Spiral, an influential Black artists’ collective of which she was the youngest and only female member, in 1965.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.