Gloria & Dorothy

Daniel Bagan, artist

born 1955

Gloria & Dorothy, 2013

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: inkjet print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 50.9 x 50.8 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 20 1/16 x 20 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 61 x 61 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 24 x 24 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 36 x 30 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Barbara Benton Wescoe Fund

Accession number: 2018.0225

Not on display

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Politics, Race, Celebrity: Photographs from the Esquire Collection

Dan Wynn’s portrait of feminist activists Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes originally appeared as a full page spread in an Esquire feature on Steinem. The article by Leonard Levitt is dismissive and focuses almost entirely on “Gloria” (not “Steinem”) as “the intellectuals’ pinup,” detailing her past romantic relationships and insinuating her public persona was more manufactured than authentic. The feature also fails to note that Steinem and Hughes co-founded the Women’s Action Alliance in 1971, an organization that amplified the voices of local feminist activists and established shelters for abused women. Although Hughes and Steinem were photographed together, Wynn’s contact sheets reveal many frames of Steinem alone, and these images of a solitary Steinem are more aligned with the scope of the article.
Wynn’s published image of Steinem alongside her comrade Hughes is a compelling portrait of intersectional feminism. Steinem attended Hughes’s birthday celebration in 2013, where Dan Bagan photographed the women reenacting their iconic poses from 1971.