The Knot
1989
38 x 24 in. (96.5 x 61 cm)
Judith Schaechter
American
Object Type:
Glass
Medium and Support:
Stained-glass panel
Credit Line:
Collection of the artist
Accession Number:
EX2020.DG1.44
A woman, a man, and two decomposing corpses are chained together in a macabre dance, surrounded by flowers and Disneyesque birds. The female figure throws her head back in an ecstatic smile.
Is this construction of interlocking human figures a rumination on romantic love, a harsh critique of the institution of marriage, or an evocation of the whims of time, loss, and the cycle of life and death? The artist has said, “I've always been interested in ecstasy along with agony. . . . I’m always interested in how women, girls, and how people mutate pain into pleasure.”
Schaechter had just completed The Knot—her largest and most ambitious work to date—when it fell in her studio, breaking every piece of glass in the top half of the image. The very next day, the artist, known for her tenacity, set back to work, disassembling the panel and remaking every broken piece.