Produced by the artist, 1975 - present
22.9 x 15.2 cm | 9 x 6 in
Mohawk Vellum 65lb acid-free archival paper
Crystal clear polypropylene archival slipcover
Unique in series of 450
Each Sketchbook includes a signed, original drawing in red archival ink bound directly into the book. Sketchbooks are hand numbered by the artist. Each Sketchbook is protected by an acid-free book jacket with a replica of the original drawing inside sketchbook.
Many dozens of Barbara Nessim’s sketchbooks up to the present day, shelved
chronologically in her studio, reflect the creative traffic between her different
modes of production. Since the early 1960s, Nessim has had her sketchbooks,
as both an aesthetic sounding board and also a platform for ideating her
innovative illustration art.
Responding to the 1950s’ social pressures for women as objects of fantasy,
Nessim’s clever and insightful counter-narratives go beyond strictly conforming to feminist art’s rejection of sexualized treatments of women’s bodies. Nessim’s engagement with cultural conceptions of womanhood, female identity and conventions of beauty naturally continues into her current work.
About the artist:
Barbara Nessim (b. 1939, Bronx, NY) is an artist whose daring and prolific
work, spanning five decades, defies narrow categorization. In its broadest sense, her artistic production has straddled fine art and illustration, all the while pushing against and reshaping the boundaries of the separation between the two fields. Nessim was one of the first artists in her profession to explore and make extensive use of the computer as an artistic tool at the dawn of the computer age in the early 1980s. Nessim’s artworks have been exhibited at numerous institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia, including the Louvre, The Whitney Museum, The Cooper Hewitt Museum, The Smithsonian Institute and The Norman Rockwell Museum. Her work has graced the covers of Time, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Magazine among others. Honors include the Pratt Lifetime Achievement Award (2015) and induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame (2020). Notable solo exhibitions include London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (2013), Bard Graduate Center Gallery (2015), and Malin Gallery (2021). The Victoria & Albert now holds eighty of Nessim’s works in their permanent collection.