The Seamstress

Between 1934 and 1936 Amelia Peláez devoted herself almost exclusively to drawing, which for her was "the fundamental discipline". In one group of this series of papers, abstract designs predominate: very pure broad curves associated with lines and right angles. Another variant is centered on "reclining women": colossal figures placed in a simple domestic interior. The third group is formed by the "seamstresses". The inclusion of this theme in Pelaez's work is curious. The sewing machine was an obligatory presence in the trousseau of most Cuban homes, at a time when modernity had been displacing the old uses. Pelaez must have seen this scene in her own home, but she brought it into her personal imagination, eliminating minor details and magnifying it, until it became almost an allegory. The modest seamstress has been transformed into a noble figure, wrapped in the cloths that spill in waves around her.