41. (322 Seventh Avenue)

Since discovering her allergy to oil paint an artist is driven to experiment with all manner of alternatives. Unexpectedly, a robust hole punch becomes the most indispensable tool in her Manhattan studio. She uses it to produce thousands of paper chads to affix to her canvases, along with sequins, glitter, talcum powder and acrylic paint. For some of her paintings she adds a further component, perfume, which she sprays liberally onto the canvases. When, many decades later, her early work is finally given the attention it has always deserved—as an African American woman the artist long faced enormous barriers—no trace remains of the perfume’s scent.

(Howardena Pindell)