Ida Applebroog (1929–2023) came to prominence in New York in the mid-1970s. With a pared back, comic strip aesthetic, her drawings and paintings depict unsettling scenarios addressing themes of power, gender and sexuality. Initially studying graphic design, she worked briefly in a New York advertising agency before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago, after which she struggled to balance art and motherhood. Experiencing a mental breakdown in her mid-forties, she was admitted to Mercy Hospital, where she sketched voraciously and, after being discharged, her art
career burgeoned. In her pictures of domestic life, simplified human figures engage in moments of quiet reflection or, sometimes, acts of sex and violence. This depiction of an introspective woman in bed offers a voyeuristic viewpoint, as if looking through a window with a partially drawn blind. Perhaps inspired by memories of her mother’s depression, Applebroog presents an intimate glimpse into an anonymous domestic drama.