Artwork copyright Dale Gottlieb. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Shylock, 1998

Dale Gottlieb
American (born 1952)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia

About the Artwork

Shylock is part of Northwest textile artist Dale Gottlieb's series of "Story Rugs" inspired by literature and multicultural folklore. It includes part of a well-known speech about equality by the character Shylock from William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice". Gottlieb notes "My work is about freedom and often inspired by people's stories about their struggle to live free from persecution." The 10-foot-tall artwork was fabricated in collaboration with a Tibetan Buddhist family who produce rugs using traditional hand-knotting techniques. The text on the rug reads: "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die?"

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Washington State Arts Commission.

About the Artist

Gottlieb earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Alfred University in New York State in 1975. She lives and works in Bellingham, Northwestern Washington. In 2003, the Whatcom Museum curated the exhibition "Story Rugs: Tales of Freedom: The Work of Dale Gottlieb".