Painter Howardena Pindell, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1943, had a life and art-altering experience in a 1979 car accident when she suffered severe injuries and temporary loss of memory. Prior to this shattering experience, Pindell had been a figurative artist who had moved into large abstractions, no doubt accelerated by twelve years in the curatorial department of the Museum of Modern Art. Following the accident, she went to Japan in 1980 for seven months immersing herself in the culture there. She also collected postcards depicting familiar places to help her regain her memory. She would later use these and other cards in collaged compositions.

Upon her return to the United States, she began creating art with intense so...