Artist Kyra Hicks (b. 1965)

Black Barbie

Date1996

DimensionsOverall: 76 × 48 in. (193 × 121.9 cm)

Object numberN0001.2010

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Museum purchase

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextKyra Hicks designs elaborate story quilts that document her identity as a young, single African American woman. Here, Hicks critiques the traditional white definition of beauty that the Barbie doll represents, while celebrating African American women. Her Barbie features multiple skin tones, lauding a diversity of skin colors but also invoking stereotypes associated with light or darker skin. Rejecting Barbie's elongated proportions, Hicks has also expanded the bust, waist, and hips of her Barbie to more accurately represent the female shape.
Exhibition History“Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art”, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, August 28, 2009 – January 14, 2010; Fenimore House Museum, Cooperstown, NY, August 23, 2008 – December 31, 2008.

"Fabric Stories in American Quilts," Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York, February 18, 2017 - May 9, 2017.

"As They Saw It: Women Artists Then & Now," Springfield Museums, Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, October 14, 2023 - January 14, 2024; Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, April 1, 2024 - September 2, 2024.
ProvenancePurchased from the artist
BibliographyGretchen Sullivan and Mary C. Sorin Aimonovitch, Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art (exh. cat. New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2008).

"Art Museum Purchases Kyra Hicks's Quilt" in Quilters Magazine, August/September 2010/No. 417, page 12

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