Artworks

Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady, 1995

  • Artist

    Adrian Piper

  • Title

    Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady

  • Date

    1995

  • Medium

    Black-and-white autophoto with oil-crayon drawing

  • Dimensions

    18 1/4 × 14 1/4 in. (46.4 × 36.2 cm)

  • Edition

    AP/L-75

  • Credit line

    The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Barbara Karp Shuster, New York

  • Object Number

    2004.2.5

Interested in the expectations that race and gender place on the body, Adrian Piper titles this work Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady. As a white-passing Black woman, Piper asks us to consider what it means to view her as a “nice” white woman. The image refutes its title by presenting Piper as herself, a Black woman, who cannot be reduced to being simply “nice.” The work’s text—“Whut choo lookin at, mofo?”—is a call to pay attention and confront how stereotypes inform the way we read people.


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Artworks

Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady, 1995

  • Artist

    Adrian Piper

  • Title

    Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady

  • Date

    1995

  • Medium

    Black-and-white autophoto with oil-crayon drawing

  • Dimensions

    18 1/4 × 14 1/4 in. (46.4 × 36.2 cm)

  • Edition

    AP/L-75

  • Credit line

    The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Barbara Karp Shuster, New York

  • Object Number

    2004.2.5

Interested in the expectations that race and gender place on the body, Adrian Piper titles this work Self-Portrait as a Nice White Lady. As a white-passing Black woman, Piper asks us to consider what it means to view her as a “nice” white woman. The image refutes its title by presenting Piper as herself, a Black woman, who cannot be reduced to being simply “nice.” The work’s text—“Whut choo lookin at, mofo?”—is a call to pay attention and confront how stereotypes inform the way we read people.


Explore further