From text on exhibit plaque describing the work – by Hallie Ringle, Curator of Contemporary Art:
Patty B. Driscoll’s small abstract works were inspired by the image of Saint Agatha in the nearby painting Enthroned Madonna and Christ Child with Angels, Saints Paula and Agatha. During the early Christian period, some believers were persecuted or even killed for their faith by Roman officials. Agatha refused the advances of a Roman official, Quintianus, and as a result was raped and tortured, and eventually her breasts were severed from her body.
Patty B Driscoll was drawn to this painting of Saint Agatha during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford. In considering the plight of Saint Agatha and Christine Blasey Ford, alongside the #metoo movement which encourages women to share their experiences of sexual assault, Driscoll created these abstract paintings that are inspired by breastplates, a type of armor designed to protect soldier’s chest in battle. Driscoll draws the abstract pattern of each painting’s surface from the patterns of textiles in paintings of Saint Agatha from the Italian Renaissance painters by drawing on artistic techniques like water gilding, the process of applying gold leaf to a layer of thin red clay, as part of her practice.
Birmingham Museum of Art installation of Pieces of Agatha Series, 2018