Monica Sjöö The time is NOW and it is overdue!
Brittany Rosemary Jones, The Brooklyn Rail
September 2022
When Monica Sjöö’s canvas God Giving Birth (1968) was installed at St. Ives Town Hall in 1970 it was met with immediate controversy. The challenge to Christian conceptions of God posed by its depiction of a woman of color delivering a child outraged the town mayor, who demanded its removal on grounds of blasphemy.
When it was displayed again three years later at an all-women group show in London, the artist narrowly avoided obscenity charges brought by religious fundamentalists. Now held in the collection of Museum Anna Nordlander—a women’s art museum in Skellefteå, Sweden—God Giving Birth is regarded today as the Swedish radical’s most iconic work, and as an emblem of second-wave feminism. […]