Don’t Cry II, 1991

The artist has said "In 1989 I started an autobiographical series, printing on one sheet a woodcut, a linocut, a photograph, and a screen print. I put a little hand-written text on each print telling the story of how I came to be an artist, starting when I was four. I believe the production of that series opened up a Pandora's box of previously repressed memories... Terrible images came to me in the night. Images I have now learned were true. I am a victim of child abuse."

This piece is one of the images the artist has created in order to process her own internal traumas. According to Gifford, the central figures are placed on a pedestal because "It focuses the viewer's attention, the way it does for a piece of sculpture. And I want this information, this tough subject matter, to be the focus. I want people to know these things happen to people. Me included." She incorporates collage into works such as this, layering pieces of woodcut over oil painting. "I use woodcut, for example, in the oil paintings to describe undulations in the landscape in a more metaphorical way. Actual woodcut, pasted to the canvas, combined with paint."

The cow is a repeating motif in Gifford's work, but it assumes a new meaning in her post-1989 works. Here, the animal appears to the right of the image and represents the inactive observer who knows that violence is occurring but does nothing to stop it. "I'm using the same image this time in a totally different context. Deadly serious stuff. The cow, in this context of child abuse, is the mother, the passive observer. The enabler. Someone who stands by and watches but doesn't protest."

BIO

Jessie Nebraska Gifford transcends categorization, delving into printmaking, drawing, photography, painting, sculpture, and even artist books. Art ran in her blood from the beginning – her great, great uncle was the legendary Hudson River artist Sanford Gifford. Since completing her B.A. at Bennington College in 1961, she has continually experimented with a variety of subjects and materials to explore the full dimensions of her own artistry. In 1976, she was chosen for the MacDowell fellowship, a New Hampshire residency that provides artists with studio space. Her unique style and approach subsequently earned her a place in exhibitions presented by the Yale University Art Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Smithsonian American Art and Portrait Gallery, and more. She also worked as a professor at Cooper Union, and a curator for Art Initiatives.

A native of her namesake Nebraska, Gifford’s undying love for her home state often appears throughout her work, from sprawling landscape paintings to charming motifs of local flora and fauna. This does not, however, counteract the gritty and vibrant influences of New York City, her decades-long chosen home. Gifford was intimately involved with the city’s community of printmakers, the women-run A.I.R. Gallery, American Print Alliance, and The International Society of Copier Artists, contributing to their quarterly publication from 1984-2002.

Sexual violence is a recurring theme that appears in Gifford’s later works. Until she was about 50 years old, she had suppressed her childhood memories of abuse, coming to the truth only after recounting her journey as an artist through a 1989 series of autobiographical works on paper. Resultantly, as she processed the newly unlocked memories, she turned to her art as a way to express the vast, dark emotions brought on by this self discovery. It often takes a moment to decode these disturbing images – on first glance, they evoke fantastical landscapes or even comic strips, but closer examination coupled with forthright titles reveals the malevolent subject. This style of delivery is somewhat intentional; in a 1993 interview, Gifford revealed that “In reaching out to a broader audience, I have created an artistic environment in the imagination where all these frightening things occur.”

Since recovering her memories, Gifford has published a number of artist books, essentially democratizing her work and making it accessible to the larger public. In 1991, she self published 25 editions of In The Dark of My Room, a “restricted autobiography” chronicling the abuse she experienced growing up (this was re-issued by Printed Matter in a larger edition). Later, she produced her MS Sketchbook (1999), which features a collection of small line drawings interpreting an MRI of the artist’s brain. The culmination of these books came with Brains and Spines, created for Purgatory Pie Press’ “InstaBook” series in 2006 that incorporates scans of Gifford’s brain and spine in a sort of abstract sequel to the MS Sketchbook. Gifford’s chronic illness inspired these physiological adaptations; in the face of childhood trauma, chronic illness, and the loss of not one but two husbands, the artist’s courage and steadfastness shine through her work.

In 2021, when Gifford was 82, Washington Printmakers Gallery mounted the solo exhibition Jessie Nebraska Gifford: Carving Color: West to East, recognizing the artist’s productive career and contributions to the field of printmaking. Despite physical limitations, she has kept up with her art, shifting gears to a more attainable process making small-scale watercolors, drawings, and monoprints.

EXHIBITED
2021
Jessie Nebraska Gifford: Carving Color: West to East [Solo], Washington Printmakers Gallery, Washington, D.C.

2019
Focus on the Flatfiles: Links, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY

2016
From Charlie Parker To Potato Chip Portraits: Exhibition Of Recently Acquired Artists’
Books, The Smithsonian American Art and Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Terra Firma: A Selection of Nebraska Landscapes from the Museum of Nebraska Art, Gallery 1516, Omaha, NE

2012
Uncovered: Prints: Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY

2011
A woman’s work is never done, A.I.R Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2003-2004
JESSIE NEBRASKA GIFFORD: Electronic paintings [Solo], A.I.R. Gallery, New York., NY,

2000
MY MS MRI’s [Solo], A.I.R Gallery, New York, NY

1998
Seven Nude Men Think About Architecture [Solo], A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY

1995
Reinventing the Emblem: Contemporary Artists Recreate a Renaissance Idea, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

1993
When Time Ended: The NO — NO! PAPA — PLEASE! Series [Solo], A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY

1972
Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

SELECT COLLECTIONS
Stevenson Library Artists' Books Collection, Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY
Bennington College, Bennington, VT
Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, NE
Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE
Jean-Noëll Herlin Archive Project Collection, New York, NY
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
The Smithsonian American Art and Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
University Art Collection, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.