The Nu-Shu series represents Rapoport’s final engagement with painting, after working in this medium for 30 years.
Making use of her Nu-Shu language of feminist stencils as well as elements such as grids and graph lines that can be traced back to her Survey Chart paintings (1970-72), she greatly expanded the scale of her work, creating monumental scale canvases that systematically explored color, composition, and modular form.
Sonya Rapoport with No. 20 II, 1972.
Koch II, 1973. Acrylic spray and graphite on canvas, 96W x 72H inches. Private collection.
These works were primarily rendered with airbrush, which was well-suited to the use of stencils.
They have since been included in surveys of the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s and 80s, although Rapoport was not closely associated with any of these artists at the time.
