Memorial To A Marriage

In 2002, the cross-disciplinary artist Patricia Cronin carved a Carrara marble self-portrait with her then partner, now wife, the pioneering feminist artist Deborah Kass. Conceived in the tradition of nineteenth-century funerary sculptures, Memorial to a Marriage presents two influential feminist artists and life partners in an eternal embrace. As a powerful commentary on gender, sexuality, and marriage, it tells both a transcendent story and one that is historically and culturally significant. The work was made a decade before Cronin and Kass were granted the right to marry in their home state of New York.
After creating the original marble sculpture for New York City’s historic Woodlawn Cemetery, Cronin made three bronze casts of the work, one of which is shown here.