Suzanne Jackson
Nest1971

Not on view

Vertical painting of a doll-like child figure in a peach shirt and olive pants standing above an amorphous red blob form with a hand extension, on a white ground

Watercolor painting of a child figure in a pale yellow shirt with a white collar, rendered in warm ochre and brown tones with loose washes. A large gray shadow of an outstretched hand spreads across the light background behind the figure.

Painting on canvas, close-up portrait of a child's face rendered in warm ochre, brown, and muted green tones with flat, fragmented planes and visible canvas texture against a pale ground.

Watercolor or gouache work depicting a deep red organic form combining a rounded cavity and an outstretched hand with five fingers. Within the hollow center, a small bird perches on green stems against a pale pink and white ground, with soft layered washes throughout.

Mixed-media work on paper depicting a small brown bird perched within a pale oval hollow, surrounded by deep red-brown organic forms and sparse green grass blades below, with soft layered washes and visible texture.

Artist or Maker: Suzanne Jackson
United States, Missouri, St. Louis, born 1944
Title: Nest
Date Made: 1971
Medium: Acrylic wash, gesso, and graphite on canvas
Dimensions: 48 × 23 7/8 × 3/4 in. (121.92 × 60.64 × 1.91 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the 2024 Collectors Committee with additional funds provided by The Buddy Taub Foundation, Stephanie and Dennis Roach, Directors
Accession Number: M.2024.67
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Suzanne Jackson is known both for her ongoing practice as an artist and her short but groundbreaking career as a gallerist in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. For more than fifty years, Jackson has made work in two as well as three dimensions in a wide variety of mediums; she is also a dancer, set designer, and educator.

Nest depicts a young child who fearlessly faces the viewer. His stocky body feels firmly grounded even as he hovers in an indeterminate blank space. In the lower ground, the spade-hand form contains an image of a bird incubating several eggs in a nest. A pale silhouette of this form, in reverse, appears behind the boy’s head. Jackson’s imagery has multiple associations, both personal and political, all related to the civil rights and antiwar movements.

Stephanie Barron
Selected Bibliography: Gheith, Jenny. Suzanne Jackson: What is Love. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2025.
Copyright: © Suzanne Jackson, courtesy of the artist and Ortuzar, New York

Related Unframed

Suzanne Jackson
Nest1971

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Suzanne Jackson
United States, Missouri, St. Louis, born 1944
Title: Nest
Date Made: 1971
Medium: Acrylic wash, gesso, and graphite on canvas
Dimensions: 48 × 23 7/8 × 3/4 in. (121.92 × 60.64 × 1.91 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the 2024 Collectors Committee with additional funds provided by The Buddy Taub Foundation, Stephanie and Dennis Roach, Directors
Accession Number: M.2024.67
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Suzanne Jackson is known both for her ongoing practice as an artist and her short but groundbreaking career as a gallerist in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. For more than fifty years, Jackson has made work in two as well as three dimensions in a wide variety of mediums; she is also a dancer, set designer, and educator.

Nest depicts a young child who fearlessly faces the viewer. His stocky body feels firmly grounded even as he hovers in an indeterminate blank space. In the lower ground, the spade-hand form contains an image of a bird incubating several eggs in a nest. A pale silhouette of this form, in reverse, appears behind the boy’s head. Jackson’s imagery has multiple associations, both personal and political, all related to the civil rights and antiwar movements.

Stephanie Barron
Selected Bibliography: Gheith, Jenny. Suzanne Jackson: What is Love. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2025.
Copyright: © Suzanne Jackson, courtesy of the artist and Ortuzar, New York