Exhibition Guide
Hannah Wilke: Art for Life’s Sake
Jun 4, 2021– Jan 16, 2022
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2 Audio Tour Experience the exhibition with the curator as your guide. Access the free audio tour on our website using your mobile device and our Wi-Fi: Pulitzer Public. Places to Sit You will find seating in the Water Court and on the Upper Level. There is a bench in the Lower East Gallery, and there are two stools in both the Lower Main and Lower South Galleries. Additional stools are available upon request. Large Print Exhibition Guide A large print version of the following text is available at the information desk; request your copy from museum staff. For More Information Email [email protected] to share your thoughts about the museum, or ask questions about this exhibition. Visit pulitzerarts.org for more information on upcoming exhibitions and programs. Museum Guidelines Help us preserve Pencils are available art for the future; at the information please do not touch desk; pens & markers the artwork are not permitted in the galleries Photos for personal use are allowed; If you need assistance, no commercial ? our museum staff is photography, here to help flash, or additional For free Wi-Fi during equipment permitted your visit, join network No food or drink Pulitzer Public are permitted A wheelchair and in the galleries stools are available Backpacks, luggage, upon request and oversized bags An elevator is located must be stored in the at the north end of coatroom; lockers the building are available for free Visitor Resources Visitor
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Hannah Wilke: Art for Life’s Sake
5 I have always used my art to have life around me. Art is for life’s sake.1 –Hannah Wilke
American artist Hannah Wilke (1940–93) created innovative and provocative art to affirm life. Her work embraces the vitality and vulnerability of the human body as essential to experiencing life and connecting with each other. She explored this subject in sculpture, photography, video, drawing, and performance. Wilke used her art to challenge gender inequality and empower all of us to realize a more sensuous connection to life and a more liberated society.
Born in 1940 in New York, Wilke studied at Tyler School of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She majored in sculpture and specialized in clay, a material she worked in throughout her career. Wilke also experimented with unconventional materials like latex and chewing gum. These soft media conveyed the body’s movement, playfully capturing its liveliness.
Wilke was a critical figure in the US art scene after the Second World War, in part for her unique approach to materials and the human body. In the early 1960s, Wilke explored representations of the body with frankness and intimacy. Engaged in the emerging feminist movement, she developed an abstract visual language based on vaginal forms in support of gender equality. For Wilke, making the vagina a focus of her art was meant to celebrate and validate women’s bodies and experiences.
In the 1970s, Wilke began to work in photography and video. She often used her body to challenge how the media objectified women, portraying them as commodities. Through these works, Introduction
6 Wilke sought to make room for her vision of women in society, characterized by freedom and self-love.
Wilke’s art gained new meaning in the face of cancer, first her mother’s diagnosis in the 1970s and later her own in 1987. With humor, compassion, and unflinching honesty, she addressed illness and death as part of life. Wilke continued to create work that challenged societal norms until her death in 1993 at the age of fifty-two.
Hannah Wilke: Art for Life’s Sake spans the full arc of Wilke’s life-affirming practice. In her work, the body is always central. Her embrace of its sensuality and vulnerability opened new approaches to artmaking and continues to resonate today.
1Wilke, quoted in Chris Heustis and Marvin Jones, “Hannah Wilke’s Art, Politics, Religion and Feminism,” The New Common Good (May 1985): 11.
Hannah Wilke: Art for Life’s Sake is curated by Tamara H. Schenkenberg, Curator, with Katherine B. Harnish, Curatorial Assistant. This exhibition is generously supported by the Scintilla Foundation.
7 On Feminism
Feminism, at its core, is the pursuit of equity and inclusion on the basis of gender. Early feminist efforts in the US focused on voting rights, only legally guaranteed to women in 1920. And while feminists of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds supported this cause, the right to vote continued to be denied to many Black women and women of color for multiple decades, with voter suppression still persisting to this day. In the last century, feminists fought to remove barriers for women to enter and advance in the workforce, to earn equal pay, and to gain agency over their own bodies, among many other causes. The ongoing efforts of Black, Indigenous, and people of color and LGBTQ+ activists have brought about greater acknowledgment of intersections of race, class, and gender, as well as expanding notions of gender and sex beyond the binary of male and female.
As part of the broader feminist movement, many artists in the 1960s and 1970s took up the feminist cause. They created work aimed at overturning sexist systems, pursuing many different priorities and strategies.
For Wilke, an important part of this work was advocating for a frank attitude toward all parts of the body. References to the vagina in her work are a vital part of her legacy of innovation as an artist and feminist. Knowing the power of language, she questioned her culture’s aversion to the word “vagina.” Shying away from this term, she noted, shuts down important conversations, including those about healthcare and reproductive rights. As a challenge to this attitude, Wilke aimed to, in her own words, create “a positive image to wipe out the prejudices, aggression, and fear” associated with the term.2
Wilke strongly linked the vagina with her own experience of being a woman, as did many feminists of the 1960s and 1970s. In the intervening decades, queer and transgender Introduction
8 voices have continued to fight for greater recognition for a broader spectrum of gender expressions. In this and other ways, feminism continues to evolve in many directions amid ongoing struggles for equality.
2Wilke, “Visual Prejudice [1980],” in Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective, ed. Thomas H. Kochheiser (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1989), 141.
9 Entrance Gallery and sexuality. Wilke’s toward unabashedattitude thebody choicessuggestarawvitality that fits artistic colorsred, yellow,the primary andblue. These Her earlydrawings, meanwhile, often featured texture andruddycolorof theterracotta clay. unglazed, Wilke highlighted the rough natural tools. Byleaving manyof herearlysculptures sculpting directly withherhandsandsimple her career. Sherejected thepotter’s wheel, that Wilke continually worked inthroughout Ceramic sculpture anddrawingare media two own perspective. Wilke took upthismaterial to express her the domainof Undaunted, maleartists. Historically, thissubjectmatter was largely desires andsexually charged imagery. movement that art dealtwithsubconscious with Surrealism, amajortwentieth-century and phalluses. Thisvisuallanguageengages includingbreasts,parts, buttocks, knees, andformsshapes suggestarangeof body Throughout thegallery, bulbous, organic liberation.for andpolitical personal taking prideandpleasure inone’s ownbody revolution of thetime, Wilke advocated for the countercultural movement andsexual from theearlyto mid-1960s. Inthespiritof a selectionof drawingsandworksinclay interest inthebody. features Thisgallery From Wilke’s the start, workrevealed her 1. Untitled, 1960 physicality of these drawings. Pastel, paint, and pencil on board With intense colors, the 20 × 29 7/8 inches (50.8 × 75.9 cm) drawings brim with life, Private Collection London. capturing the primal energy Courtesy Alison Jacques, London of the human body. Works in Focus: Here, we see elements that will return throughout Wilke’s #2–4 career. Notice the use of the primary colors red, blue, and 2. Untitled, ca. 1964–66 Pastel and graphite on card yellow; the rhythmic lines; 6 1/2 × 4 1/2 inches (16.5 × 11.4 cm) and the rounded shapes in Hannah Wilke Collection & conversation with geometric Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy ones. Even as her style and Alison Jacques, London, and Marc technique evolved over time, Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Wilke frequently used these 3. Untitled, ca. 1964–66 elements to communicate the Pastel and graphite on card body’s liveliness. 6 1/2 × 4 1/2 inches (16.5 × 11.4 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & ⚫ Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
4. Untitled, ca. 1964–66 Pastel and graphite on card 6 1/2 × 4 inches (16.5 × 10.2 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
In these early drawings, ambiguous shapes suggest a range of body parts including sexual organs. Colliding and merging, the forms resist easy identification. Wilke embraced her work’s openness to multiple interpretations, saying: “There is this ethics of ambiguity otherwise it wouldn’t be art.”3
Wilke’s bold application of 1, no. 2 (1978): n.p. with Ernst,” Oasis d’Neon 1, no. Talks Hannah Wilke in “Artist quoted Wilke, oil pastel underscores the 3
11 5. Untitled, ca. mid 1960s Work in Focus: #11 Pastel on paper 18 × 24 inches (45.7 × 61 cm) 11. Five Androgynous and Collection of Larry and Susan Vaginal Sculptures, 1960–61 Marx, Aspen. Courtesy Marc Terracotta Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles a: 2 1/2 × 2 × 3 inches and Alison Jacques, London (6.4 × 5.1 × 7.6 cm) 6. Untitled, early 1960s b: 3 × 2 3/4 × 2 7/8 inches Ink and paint on onion paper (7.6 × 7 × 7.3 cm) 19 × 25 inches (48.3 × 63.5 cm) c: 6 × 3 × 3 1/4 inches Collection of Donald and Helen (15.2 × 7.6 × 8.3 cm) Goddard. Courtesy Ronald d: 4 1/2 × 4 × 2 1/2 inches Feldman Gallery, New York (11.4 × 10.2 × 6.3 cm) e: 4 3/4 × 2 × 2 1/2 inches 7. Untitled, 1965 (12.1 × 5.1 × 6.4 cm) Ink on rice paper Hannah Wilke Collection & 12 1/4 × 17 5/8 inches Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy (31.1 × 44.8 cm) Alison Jacques, London Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy These vessel-like forms have Alison Jacques, London openings and protrusions 8. Untitled, ca. 1964–66 that suggest bodily orifices Pastel and pencil on paper and genitalia without being 18 × 24 inches (45.7 × 61 cm) overt. Wilke used the word Hannah Wilke Collection & “androgynous” in the title Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy to describe their sexual Alison Jacques, London ambiguity. For her, this term 9. Untitled, ca. 1960s evoked a fluidity between Pastel, chalk, and graphite male and female sex organs. on paper 18 × 24 inches (45.7 × 61 cm) Made of unglazed terracotta, y Hannah Wilke Collection & the sculpture appears earthy Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy and natural, complementing Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Wilke’s unashamed approach Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles to the body. When she began 10. Untitled, ca. mid 1960s sculpting in clay, it had minor Pastel and pencil on paper importance in the art world 18 × 24 inches (45.7 × 61 cm) because of its association Hannah Wilke Collection & with crafts and functional Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London ceramics. Wilke saw the chance to reclaim and elevate it as a sculptural material.
Entrance Galler ⚫
12 12. Motion Sensor, ca. 1966–67 Terracotta 3 × 10 1/4 × 6 3/4 inches (7.6 × 26 × 17.1 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles
13. Untitled, ca. 1960s Terracotta 3 1/2 × 3 3/8 × 4 1/2 inches (8.9 × 8.6 × 11.4 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
13 The main gallery highlights Wilke’s evolving experiments with clay. The subject matter of her work during the later 1960s and the 1970s, while still expressed abstractly, became more clearly vaginal. In a culture that viewed women as lesser and genitals as shameful, Wilke sought to celebrate both through her art. We can see how Wilke’s techniques of working in clay developed, moving from vessel-like forms displayed in the previous gallery to built-up layers and eventually to pared-down folds. With these changes, her signature vaginal motif took on new depths of meaning. For Wilke, this form was meant to represent not only female- marked anatomy and embodied experiences but also ideas of generativity, creativity, and shared human connection. Along with many of her peers in the 1960s and 1970s, Wilke directly linked the vagina to her experience of being a woman. The intervening decades have brought an understanding of a much broader spectrum y of relationships between anatomy and gender—that is, that a person’s genitals do not determine their gender. In today’s context, Wilke’s use of the vaginal form continues to resonate through its motivation to be more inclusive and to open up the art world to more people on the basis of gender. Main Galler 14. Untitled, ca. 1963–65 19. Teasel Cushion, 1967 Acrylic on canvas Terracotta, acrylic, and plastic 48 × 60 1/8 inches 4 × 12 × 12 inches (121.9 × 152.7 cm) (10.2 × 30.5 × 30.5 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Collection Walker Art Center, Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Minneapolis; T. B. Walker Alison Jacques, London Acquisition Fund, 2002
20. Untitled, ca. late 1960s Works in Focus: Terracotta 8 × 7 3/4 × 5 1/4 inches #15–24 (20.3 × 19.7 × 13.3 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection 15. Untitled, ca. late 1960s & Archive, Los Angeles. Terracotta Courtesy Alison Jacques, London 3 1/2 × 9 1/4 × 11 1/4 inches (8.9 × 23.5 × 28.6 cm) 21. Untitled, ca. late 1960s Hannah Wilke Collection & Terracotta Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 6 1/4 × 5 1/4 × 3 inches Alison Jacques, London, and Marc (15.9 × 13.3 × 7.6 cm) Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 16. North American Candle Snuffer, Alison Jacques, London ca. 1967 Terracotta 22. Untitled, ca. late 1960s 4 7/8 × 10 1/8 × 11 1/4 inches Terracotta (12.4 × 25.7 × 28.6 cm) 3 3/4 × 7 1/8 × 8 1/4 inches Private Collection. Courtesy (9.5 × 18.1 × 21 cm) Acquavella Galleries Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 17. Yellow Rose of Texas, 1970 Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Painted terracotta Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles 5 1/4 × 9 1/2 × 9 inches (13.3 × 24.1 × 22.9 cm) 23. San Antonio Rose, 1966 Hannah Wilke Collection & Terracotta Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 8 × 11 × 10 1/2 inches Alison Jacques, London (20.3 × 27.9 × 26.7 cm) Collection of Gail and Tony 18. Untitled, ca. early 1970s Ganz, Los Angeles. Courtesy Terracotta Alison Jacques, London, and 2 3/8 × 4 1/2 × 5 inches Michael Solway, Cincinnati (6 × 11.4 × 12.7 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & 24. Untitled (Vaginal Box), ca. 1970 Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Latex and ceramic Alison Jacques, London 6 3/4 × 10 1/2 × 5 inches (17.1 × 26.7 × 12.7 cm) Collection of Donald and Helen
15 Goddard. Courtesy Ronald form soon afterwards. Feldman Gallery, New York Abandoning the box form, she began creating sculptures Sculptures in this display case made from folded clay, demonstrate the experiments exemplified by this untitled and evolution of Wilke’s work (#18). It consists of just technique of working in clay. In one circle of clay that Wilke the late 1960s and 1970s, she cupped in her hands and then moved away from what she folded and tucked the edges described as the solidity and to leave the center open. This monumentality of traditional seemingly effortless process sculpture and toward lighter, conveys a sense of immediacy. less material form. Always resulting in unique Wilke created the earlier forms, this method became works in this group like the basis of all of Wilke’s San Antonio Rose (#23) future works in clay. by wrapping sheets of ⚫ clay around a square base. She called these types 25. Untitled, ca. early 1970s of sculptures “boxes,” Watercolor on paper a punning reference to 10 3/8 × 17 3/8 inches (26.4 × 44.1 cm) their construction that Hannah Wilke Collection & was also slang for vagina. Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy For Wilke, working with a Alison Jacques, London vaginal form was a way to affirm her own body and uplift others to do the same. The result of her “box” construction is compact yet supple, on the verge of unfolding. y Density and tension give way to more relaxed forms in slightly later works like Yellow Rose of Texas (#17). Here the pared-back layers of clay almost seem to fall away from the airy center. Wilke further distilled this Main Galler
16 Works in Focus: “My sculpture is about oneness. One circle of #26–29 clay or gum or latex rubber becomes a three-dimensional 26. Just Fifteen, 1977 form through human gesture. Unglazed ceramic on compressed wood particle board It’s like cell division, the instant Base: 39 × 39 inches and constant transformation (99.1 × 99.1 cm); ceramic pieces of simple life forms to complex vary, approximately 4 × 5 × 7 life forms, all similar but inches (10.2 × 12.7 × 17.8 cm) each distinct.”4 Cincinnati Art Museum, Gift of Kimberly P. Klosterman and In the late 1970s, Wilke began Michael Lowe, 1995.378a‑o creating multipart works 27. Sweet Sixteen, 1977 of art. Each component is Painted ceramic on painted board the result of her one-fold 16 sculptures, each: 3 1/2 × 5 1/2 × technique. Wilke started with 2 1/2 inches (8.9 × 14 × 6.4 cm); uniform circles of clay and Board: 4 × 32 × 32 inches shaped them into unique (10.2 × 81.3 × 81.3 cm) three-dimensional forms Hannah Wilke Collection & using a cupping and folding Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London motion, seeming to breathe life into the sterile geometry. 28. Baby Blue, 1977 Wilke’s process of handmade, 36 painted ceramic sculptures, organic variation was a direct each: 4–7 1/8 inches (10.2–18.1 cm) Board: 63 × 63 inches response to Minimalism, a (160 × 160 cm) movement in which artists Collection of Gail and Tony Ganz, embraced the precision of Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison mechanical reproduction. Jacques, London, and Michael Solway, Cincinnati Each one-fold sculpture is subtly different from the 29. Elective Affinities, 1978 next, yet they are all related Porcelain and wood Overall display dimensions variable through their shared origins Partial purchase with funds as circles of clay. In this way, provided by Tate Americas Wilke meant to express the Foundation, Tate International individuality and commonality Council and an anonymous donor among all people. The (Tate) and partial gift Marsie, interrelationships between the Emanuelle, Damon and Andrew sculptures hold them together Scharlatt, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles (Tate as a new, collective whole. Americas Foundation) 2015 But they also reach outward. Wilke, quoted in Heustis and Jones, “Hannah Wilke’s Art,” 1. “Hannah Wilke’s in Heustis and Jones, quoted Wilke, 4
17 The rhythmic placement of the repeating forms suggests expansion and growth. In these multipart sculptures, we also see a shift in Wilke’s style. The clay she uses in these works is thinner, with smooth surfaces and pastel hues. This contrasts with the earthly unglazed terracotta of her mid-1960s work. Wilke shared that she used pastel tones—a range of colors that were historically dismissed because of their association with femininity— as another way to push against cultural expectations. ⚫ y Main Galler
18 “My sculpture is about oneness. One circle of clay or gum or latex rubber becomes a three- dimensional form through human gesture. It’s like cell division, the instant and constant transformation of simple life forms to complex life forms, all similar but each distinct.”5
—Hannah Wilke
5Wilke, quoted in Heustis and Jones, “Hannah Wilke’s Art,” 1
19 Cube Gallery the fullestinbrief time wehave. for hermeant thefreedom to experience life to liberation, which sensuality couldbringabout body’s capacityfor pleasure. that Shebelieved wasawaytoto celebrate artmaking herown For Wilke, thisplayful,irreverent approach moment allthemore poignant. Their vulnerabilitymadethepleasure of the something to usedbriefly be andthrown away. fragileovertime.becomes Gumwascheap, She embracedthisriskknowingly. Latex and theinherent instabilityof thematerial. deteriorated of because theformula sheused Many of Wilke’s earlylatex workshavealready together, Wilke created tiny, forms. colorful By pullingitinto stripsandpressing them chewedguminavividarrayofshaped colors. them into exuberant sculptures. Shealso they dried,shefolded, andgathered snapped, Wilke poured latex into lacyshapes. When not madeto last. bronze ormarble, thesematerials were them newexpressive potential. Unlike vaginal forms inlatex orchewinggumgave materials. Creating hersignature abstract of Wilke’s experiments withunconventional weseetheinnovativeIn thisgallery results 30. Untitled, 1967 artistic experimentation, Pastel, charcoal, and graphite Wilke took something her on paper culture dismissed as lowly 17 3/8 × 24 inches (44.1 × 61 cm) and questioned the reason Collection of Donald and Helen Goddard. Courtesy Ronald for that dismissal. This is the Feldman Gallery, New York same approach, grounded in feminist critique, that she took to reclaim clay, pastel colors, Works in Focus: and, most provocatively, #31–33 the vagina.
31. Wishing You a Very Happy The exchange of greeting Easter, 1971 cards represents the Pastel, pencil, and collage on paper relationships of care and 18 × 24 inches (45.7 × 61 cm) reciprocity between people. Hannah Wilke Collection & We can see that emphasis Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy on connection in the way Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Wilke’s drawings echo and elaborate on the cards’ 32. To Sister, 1973 designs. They seem to dance Pastel and collage on paper around the greeting cards, 18 × 23 7/8 inches (45.7 × 60.6 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & implying a responsive set of Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy interrelationships. Alison Jacques, London ⚫ 33. The Forgotten Man, ca. 1970 Pastel, pencil, and collage on paper 23 × 29 1/2 inches (58.4 × 74.9 cm) Work in Focus: #34 Collection of Donald and Helen 34. Ponder-r-rosa 4, White Plains, Goddard. Courtesy Ronald Yellow Rocks, 1975 Feldman Gallery, New York Latex, metal snaps, and push pins, 16 sculptures, each: 17 × 26 × 5 In these collaged works, 3/4 inches (43.2 × 66 × 14.6 cm); vintage greeting cards overall: 68 × 250 × 5 3/4 inches anchor Wilke’s curving (172.7 × 635 × 14.6 cm) lines, amorphous shapes, Museum of Modern Art, New and horizontal bands. Such York. Committee on Painting and cards are associated with Sculpture Funds and gift of Marsie, sentimentality, which in turn Emanuelle, Damon, and Andrew Scharlatt, Hannah Wilke Collection is associated with femininity. & Archive, Los Angeles, 2008 By making these cards the center of her rigorous Looking at the skin-like latex
21 and the metal snaps evokes also refers to one of Wilke’s our sense of touch. Organic artistic points of reference— folds, perforated with irregular the French-American artist holes, blossom out from the Marcel Duchamp (1887– wall, reaching toward us. The 1968), and in particular, his sculpture seems to embody alter ego, Rrose Sélavy. In Wilke’s desire to connect French, Rrose Sélavy sounds through her work: “I want like “eros, c’est la vie,” or, to overwhelm you. I want to in English, “sex/love, that’s touch your feelings. I want life.” Wilke’s playful free to give you tender strength. association brings out the Feel! Feel the folds; one sculpture’s layered meanings fold, two folds, expressive of taking pleasure in humor, precise gestural symbols. pondering the natural world, Multi-layered metaphysics and contemplating the below the gut level, like intersections of love, sex, laughter, making love, or and life. 6 shaking hands.” ⚫ Wilke loved bringing humor into her work. She often used Works in Focus: puns such as the one in the title: Ponder-r-rosa. Ponder... #35–36 roses? Ponder...Eros? 35. Untitled, ca. mid-1960s Ponderosa Steak House? Pastel and pencil on paper Wilke began the Ponder-r-rosa 16 1/2 × 24 inches (41.9 × 61 cm) series in the mid-1970s with a Hannah Wilke Collection & commission for art to display Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy in the corporate headquarters Alison Jacques, London, and Marc of the Ponderosa Steak House Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles restaurant chain. Wilke wittily 36. Untitled, ca. late 1960s
y turns our attention to the act Pastel and pencil on paper of wondering with the word Image: 16 × 23 inches “ponder.” She also makes (40.6 × 58.4 cm) a visual reference to roses, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy highlighting the blooming Alison Jacques, London structure of her sculpture. On yet another level, the title There are holes in these
6Wilke, “Letter to Women Artists,” in Art: A Woman’s Sensibility, Feminist Art Program (Valencia, CA:
Cube Galler California Institute of the Arts, 1975), 76.
22 drawings—or rather, openings. Hannah Wilke Collection & Wilke cut into the paper, Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy letting in air and light. With Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles these works, she invites us to look not only at the drawings 40. Untitled, ca. late 1970s but also through them. Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches On one level, these openings (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) can be understood as abstract Hannah Wilke Collection & references to vaginas, a site of Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy pleasure as well as the origin Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles of human life. We can find another layer of meaning in 41. Untitled, ca. late 1970s Wilke’s philosophical interest Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box in being open to life, to 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) experience, and to connection Hannah Wilke Collection & with the world around us. Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy ⚫ Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Works in Focus: 42. Untitled, ca. late 1970s Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box #37–51 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) 37. Untitled, ca. late 1970s Hannah Wilke Collection & Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches Alison Jacques, London, and (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 43. Untitled, 1984 Alison Jacques, London, and Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) 38. Untitled, 1984 Hannah Wilke Collection & Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches Alison Jacques, London, and (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 44. Untitled, ca. late 1970s Alison Jacques, London, and Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) 39. Untitled, ca. late 1970s Hannah Wilke Collection & Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm)
23 Alison Jacques, London, and 50. Untitled, 1984 Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches 45. Untitled, 1979 (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box Hannah Wilke Collection & 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) Alison Jacques, London, and Hannah Wilke Collection & Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London, and 51. Gum Landscape, 1975 Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles 101 chewing gum sculptures on painted wood 46. Untitled, 1977 15 7/8 × 17 15/16 × 2 5/8 inches Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box (40.3 × 45.6 × 6.7 cm) 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches Private Collection. Courtesy Ronald (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) Feldman Gallery, New York Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Colorful, sweet, and ultimately Alison Jacques, London, and disposable—chewing gum Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles appealed to Wilke as an 47. Untitled, 1979 innovative material worth Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box exploring in sculpture. In 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches the mid-1970s, she started (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & collecting different colors Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy (and flavors) of gum. Alison Jacques, London, and Though she often referred Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles to their form as vaginal, 48. Untitled, ca. late 1970s Wilke pointed out that Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box her gum sculptures also 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches resembled the head of a (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & penis. She valued the visual Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy and sexual ambiguity of this Alison Jacques, London, and Marc form, which she described y Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles as androgynous. Decades 49. Untitled, 1976 before conversations about Gum sculpture in Plexiglas box transgender and intersex 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 1 inches embodiment were emerging, (6.4 × 6.4 × 2.5 cm) works like this give insight into Hannah Wilke Collection & Wilke’s interest in expanding Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy views about human anatomy Alison Jacques, London, and and how it connects to gender. Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Each tiny sculpture started as Cube Galler
24 gum chewed by Wilke or by others. She then pulled the gum into a strip, pressed it together with different colored strips of gum, and folded it into its finished form. These sculptures display Wilke’s cheeky approach to eroticism with their playful twist on ideas of oral pleasure. In addition to being sugary and colorful, gum is disposable. Wilke explored the implications of making art from a material that was intended to be enjoyed for just a few minutes before being thrown away. She felt it spoke to the way women were so often treated— almost as objects of planned obsolescence: “I chose gum because it’s the perfect metaphor for the American Woman—chew her up, get what you want out of her, throw her out and pop in a new piece.”7 ⚫ 52. Untitled, 1975–78 Ceramic 60 sculptures, overall 32 × 32 inches (81.3 × 81.3 cm) Collection of Marguerite Steed Hoffman. Courtesy of Alison Jacques, London Wilke, quoted in Avis Berman, “A Decade of Progress, But Could a Female Chardin Make a Living?” Make Chardin But Could a Female Progress, Decade of Berman, “A in Avis quoted Wilke, 7 Artnews 1980, 77. , October
25 Lower Main Gallery Work in Focus: #53
53. Gestures, 1974 Black-and-white video with sound 35:30 min Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, New York
Pinching, pulling, molding, slapping, stroking—in her first video work, Wilke treated her face as if she were sculpting clay. Here she manipulates her skin and features in repetitive, morphing movements, asserting her agency over her own body while simultaneously revealing its expressive potential. Wilke dedicated this work to her former brother-in-law Hal Scharlatt who passed away suddenly. She made this work the day after his death as a way to process this loss. In her words, “When my brother- in-law died, I set up the video camera in Claes’s studio [referring to then-partner, the artist Claes Oldenburg], and I touched myself, felt myself, molded my face, and stroked myself until I got back my body at a time when I felt emotionally lost.”8 ⚫ Wilke, quoted in a 1986 interview with Linda Montano, “Hannah Wilke Interview,” Performance Artists Interview,” “Hannah Wilke with Linda Montano, in a 1986 interview quoted Wilke, 8 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000), 139. Press, California CA: University of in the Eighties (Berkeley, Talking
27 Lower South Gallery objecting to thismanipulation.” thesubjectandobject, But Ibecame want others to theobjectsof be theirdesire. directing theworks. Inherownwords: “People highlighting herrole for inboth posing and her inmakingimagesof herself, whilealso phrase to acknowledge thosewhoassisted “performalist self-portraiture.” Sheusedthis Wilke anapproach developed shecalled control of itsrepresentation. To thisend, wanted to andtake affirm herownbody only value assubjectsto looked at. be She andcommercialhistory culture—their objectifiedinart ways womenhadbeen Wilke contendedIn herownart, withthe source of shame. andsenses, sonudityshouldn’tbodies a be meant connectingwiththeworldthrough our vulnerability. that Shebelieved livingfully thisasawaytounderstood communicate Wilke isnudeinmanyof theseworks. She and freedom of expression. they produce, to make spacefor individuality these forces, andthedeadeningconformity misogyny, andpatriarchy. Wilke critiqued that shetracedto capitalism,consumerism, to address therepressive societal norms photography andvideointhemid-1970s sexual liberation. Shebegan using of and social to inservice break taboos Through thecameralens, Wilke continued 9 Works in Focus: 60. S.O.S. Starification Object Series, 1974 #54–62 Gelatin silver print 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm) 54. S.O.S. Starification Object Collection of Tom and Alice Tisch. Series, 1974 Courtesy Alison Jacques, London Gelatin silver print 40 × 27 inches (101.6 × 68.6 cm) 61. S.O.S. Starification Object Collection of Alison Jacques, Series, 1974 London Gelatin silver print 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm) 55. S.O.S. Starification Object Collection of Teresa Tsai. Courtesy Series, 1974 Alison Jacques, London Gelatin silver print 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm) 62. S.O.S. Starification Object Collection of Olivia Walton. Series, 1974 Courtesy Alison Jacques, London Gelatin silver print 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm) 56. S.O.S. Starification Object Collection of Shezad and Series, 1974 Miranda Dawood. Courtesy Gelatin silver print Alison Jacques, London 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm) Collection of Michael and What judgements do we make Sharon Young. Courtesy when we look at each other? Alison Jacques, London Wilke believed that prejudice 57. S.O.S. Starification Object began with sight: “People Series, 1974 are first visually prejudiced Gelatin silver print and that’s why I made myself 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm) very visual.”10 She wanted to Collection of Olivia Walton. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London use her image to draw out prejudices so that people 58. S.O.S. Starification Object would have to confront them. Series, 1974 Gelatin silver print These photographs are 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm) selections from a series Collection of Donald and Helen that includes twenty-eight Goddard. Courtesy Ronald pictures. In each image, Feldman Gallery, New York Wilke dares us to look at her. 59. S.O.S. Starification Object She uses different props Series, 1974 and poses to evoke a range Gelatin silver print of stereotypes, parodying 7 × 5 inches (17.8 × 12.7 cm) Collection of Heidi and Erik representations of fashion Murkoff. Courtesy Alison models and movie stars. Jacques, London Wilke, quoted in Heustis and Jones, “Hannah Wilke’s Art,” 11. “Hannah Wilke’s in Heustis and Jones, quoted Wilke, 9, 10
29 Wilke placed her gum 63. Untitled #4, 1976 sculptures on her face, hands, Chewing gum on 16 sheets of rice and chest. They interrupt the paper, framed in Plexiglas 33 7/8 × 25 3/4 inches act of looking at her in the (86 × 65.4 cm) role of a model—that is, as Collection of Marguerite an object of commercial or Steed Hoffman. Courtesy sexual desire. For the artist, Alison Jacques, London this objectification was a source of distress, which she Work in Focus: #64 signaled through the pattern of gum and title of the work 64. Atrophy, from the So Help Me (S.O.S.), which refers to Morse Hannah series, 1978–84 code. In this way, she asks us Performalist Self-Portrait with Donald Goddard to pause and think about the Vintage black-and-white real, vulnerable human beings photograph in yellow frame pictured in such images. 60 × 40 inches (152.4 × 101.6 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & The gum sculptures are Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy also meant to represent Alison Jacques, London scars, visualizing emotional and psychological pain. In this photograph, Wilke This includes the pain of is nude and balances contending with the prejudices precariously in high heels on that fuel not only stereotypes an air compressor. Her pose but also discrimination and reveals her position in society violence. As a Jewish woman as a woman, contrasting y born during World War II, her own vulnerable body Wilke spoke about these with that of the mechanical gum scars as referencing, equipment. The machine can in part, the marking and be understood as a symbol for dehumanization of Jewish the industrial, capitalist, and people during the Holocaust. patriarchal structures of the dominant culture. By using her gum sculptures in this way, Wilke insisted on Over the air compressor, art’s capacity to enact political Wilke superimposed the resistance, to inspire agency, word “atrophy”—meaning to and to dislodge deadening diminish or waste away. As (even deadly) systems someone who loved wordplay, of oppression. she meant for us to read the ⚫ word a second way, as “a Lower South Galler South Lower
30 trophy.” This refers to the idea soliciting donations. She made of women as status symbols them to use in a performance that diminish in value over at a fundraising event for time. Wilke’s foothold the Public Art Fund. The can on the machine, while form raises the question of tenuous, suggests that she the economic struggle of and other women have a artists, especially women chance to flip this dynamic artists who have so often and rise above it, and that, been kept out of structures perhaps, it is the dominant of power in the art world. culture that will waste away. By placing a nude image of herself on the can, Wilke This work is based on one of seems to be thinking about fifty photographs in the series the commercial exploitation of So Help Me Hannah, for which women and strictures around Wilke posed throughout the their sexuality. At the same P.S.1 Institute for Art and time, she asserts, through a Urban Resources, Queens pun in the title, that she “can” (now MoMA PS1). overcome these obstacles. ⚫ ⚫
Work in Focus: #65 Work in Focus: #66 65. Hannah Wilke Can, 1978 66. Intercourse with…, 1978 Photo-reproduction on 5 coin Black-and-white video with sound collection cans 27 min Each: 6 × 3 inches (15.2 × 7.6 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, New York Alison Jacques, London In this taped performance, A rapturous Wilke in high Wilke uses nudity in order to heels and a loincloth adorns communicate the vulnerability these tin cans. Her pose is of being in personal a reference to Venus, the relationships. We see her Roman goddess of love, who slowly removing her clothing was often represented in the as she listens to answering history of Western art in this machine messages left for half-revealing position. her by family, friends, lovers, The tin cans, with slits in the and colleagues. Letters on her top, are the kind used for bare body spell out the names
31 or initials of her callers. She Goddard. Courtesy Ronald peels the letters from her skin, Feldman Gallery, New York an action that seems to ask: 68. Corcoran Art Gallery, 1976 how do our relationships mark Kneaded erasers on postcard on us, define us, or constrain painted board in Plexiglas box us? And who are we with and Overall: 15 3/4 × 17 3/4 inches (40 without them? × 45.1 cm) Collection of Gail and Tony Ganz, Los Angeles. Courtesy The soundtrack shifts to Alison Jacques, London, and Wilke reading her artist Michael Solway, Cincinnati statement. As a part of this 69. The Hudson River, West Point, text she gives examples of NY, 1975 crude language for genitals Kneaded erasers on vintage to show how it encourages postcard and painted board in shame, fear, and aggression Plexiglas box Overall: 15 3/4 × 17 3/4 × 1 7/8 inches toward human bodies. In (40 × 45.1 × 4.8 cm) contrast, Wilke explains that Collection of Marsie Scharlatt. her goal is to create art that Gift of the Artist. Courtesy addresses the body in positive Alison Jacques, London and empowering ways. The 70. Roma Coliseum, 1974 statement gives further Kneaded erasers on postcard and meaning to Wilke’s actions in painted board in Plexiglas box the performance. Removing Overall: 15 3/4 × 17 3/4 × 2 1/8 inches the letters now also suggests (40 × 45.1 × 5.4 cm) removing other people’s Collection of Marsie Scharlatt. expectations or judgements Gift of the Artist. Courtesy Alison y Jacques, London about her body as she reclaims it for herself. 71. Lincoln Memorial, 1976 Kneaded erasers on postcard on ⚫ painted board in Plexiglas box Overall: 15 7/8 × 17 13/16 inches (40.3 × 45.2 cm) Works in Focus: Collection of Gail and Tony Ganz, #67–73 Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London, and Michael 67. Franklin’s Tomb, Solway, Cincinnati Philadelphia, 1977 72. Needed-Erase-Her, No. 12, 1974 Kneaded erasers on postcard and Kneaded erasers on painted board painted wood in Plexiglas box 2 × 13 1/2 × 13 1/2 inches Overall: 16 × 18 × 2 3/4 inches (5.1 × 34.3 × 34.3 cm) (40.6 × 45.7 × 7 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Collection of Donald and Helen Lower South Galler South Lower
32 Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy exciting potential of their inclusion. Alison Jacques, London The works envision a world where 73. Needed-Erase-Her #14, 1974 women are free from the suppression Kneaded erasers on painted board of patriarchy and can participate 2 × 13 × 13 inches more fully in society. (5.1 × 33 × 33 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of ⚫ Art, Gift of Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon, and Andrew Scharlatt, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles
Stretchy and malleable, “I made kneaded erasers are the primary material of these works. While they are often myself into a used to erase marks from drawings, erasers themselves are unusual as sculpting work of art. material. For Wilke, making abstract representations That gave of vaginal forms from erasers was a way to point out the historical absence of me back women from various sectors of society. By titling several works my control Needed-Erase-Her (#72–73), she punned on the name of the material, drawing as well as attention to women as both 11 “needed” and “erased.” In dignity.” other works (#67–71), Wilke strategically placed kneaded eraser sculptures onto vintage postcards depicting civic monuments such as art —Hannah Wilke museums and other public spaces. The eraser sculptures represented both the present exclusion of women and the 11Wilke, quoted in Montano, “Hannah Wilke Interview,” 139.
33 Lower East Gallery making art asawayof affirmingmaking art life. WilkeThroughout continued thisperiod, real individuals—vulnerable butfullyalive. notSelma Butter asidealized womenbutas Wilke depicted both herselfandhermother too dotheseworks. Withremarkable candor, conventional representations of women,so As Wilke’s earlierphotographs challenged ultimately fatal illnesswithcancer. her mother’s—and later herown—longand of workWilkebodies created documenting gallery, dividedinto sections, two features the ofthese often hiddenaspects life. This the late 1970s, sheworked to make visible coming to terms withillnessanddeath. In meant both reveling initspleasures andalso For Wilke, embracingthelife of thebody Gallery Part One Work in Focus: #74
The first half of this gallery 74. In Memoriam: Selma Butter brings together work Wilke (Mommy), 1979–83 made of or about her mother, Photographic triptych with floor sculpture Selma Butter. In 1970, when Triptych: 3 groups of 6 gelatin silver Wilke was thirty years old, prints, each with press type and art her mother was diagnosed paper, mounted on board, each with breast cancer. Selma 41 × 61 inches (101.1 × 155 cm), had a mastectomy that sent framed. Sculpture: 3 groups of the cancer into remission, but 2 acrylic painted ceramics on an it returned in 1978. Despite acrylic painted Masonite board, each 13 × 20 × 4 inches further treatments, she died in (33 × 50.8 × 10.2 cm) 1982. During those four years, Hannah Wilke Collection & Wilke devoted time to her Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy mother, who became a major Alison Jacques, London subject in her work: “I took thousands of photographs of In 1978, Wilke’s mother her. . . . The images I made of Selma learned that her myself and my mother kept breast cancer had come me alive.”12 back from remission. Throughout the following During this time, Wilke four years, Wilke spent continued to work in clay and much of her time with her applied colorful paint to her mother, taking her to doctors’ sculptures. She later reflected appointments and keeping that as her mother got sicker, her company. the colors she used became brighter. In addition to this Wilke took hundreds of change in surface treatment, photographs documenting Wilke began thinking about moments in Selma’s daily her abstract vaginal sculptures life. She believed this to be in new ways. She spoke of therapeutic for both of them. the works in this gallery as After Selma died in 1982, references to both wombs and these images formed the tombs, representing the full basis of Wilke’s multipart cycle of life. memorial to the woman that gave her life. ⚫ Below the photographs,
12Wilke, “Seura Chaya,” New Observations 58 (June 1988): 12.
35 cutout shapes of paper echo 77. B.C. Series, Self-Portrait, some of the negative spaces April 24, 1988, 1988 of the images. Beneath Watercolor on Arches paper 71 1/2 × 51 1/2 inches the shapes are words that (181.6 × 130.8 cm) describe Wilke’s relationship Hannah Wilke Collection with her mother. Clay & Archive, Los Angeles. sculptures in primary colors Courtesy Alison Jacques, complete the work. For Wilke, London, and Marc Selwyn the color palette suggested Fine Art, Los Angeles the primal bond between “I realized that what I had parent and child. done in the last few days, ⚫ because I had been quite depressed, was to make Works in Focus: gestural layered watercolors of only my face in which I took #75–77 away my hair, creating circular patterns. But these portraits 75. B.C. Series, Self-Portrait, really became portraits of my May 13, 1988, 1988 Watercolor on Arches paper mother, who had lost all of her 13 71 1/2 × 51 1/2 inches hair from chemotherapy.” (181.6 × 130.8 cm) Wilke started making these Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. portraits in 1986, four years Courtesy Alison Jacques, after her mother’s death. By London, and Marc Selwyn painting just her face, she felt Fine Art, Los Angeles : Part One : Part she was also portraying her y 76. B.C. Series, Self-Portrait, mother, encircling them both. May 22, 1988, 1988 The brushwork seems to Watercolor on Arches paper caress Wilke’s face rather 71 1/2 × 51 1/2 inches (181.6 × 130.8 cm) than delineate it, creating Hannah Wilke Collection loose forms. Her woven & Archive, Los Angeles. brushstrokes evoke her Courtesy Alison Jacques, desire for oneness and London, and Marc Selwyn interconnection with the self Fine Art, Los Angeles and the world. With these portraits, Wilke envisioned herself as ever-changing, vitally open to life without
13 Lower East Galler Lower Wilke, quoted in Montano, “Hannah Wilke Interview,” 140–41.
36 denying her own mortality. Work in Focus: #81 Wilke began making these 81. Untitled (Seura Chaya), 1983 works before learning of her Watercolor on paper own cancer diagnosis in 1987. 7 × 10 inches (17.8 × 25.4 cm) She continued making them Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, for several years and decided Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison to title them B.C. Series for Jacques, London “before cancer.” This colorful, intimate drawing ⚫ is a portrait of Wilke’s pet lovebird, Seura Chaya. The 78. Generation Process Series #16, 1982 day after her mother’s funeral, Acrylic on ceramic and wood this little bird flew into 3 1/2 × 19 1/2 × 19 1/2 inches Wilke’s life. It had gotten into (8.9 × 49.5 × 49.5 cm) her future husband Donald Hannah Wilke Collection Goddard’s apartment, and he & Archive, Los Angeles. brought it to Wilke. She and Courtesy Alison Jacques, her sister named the lovebird London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Chaya—their mother’s Hebrew middle name, which means 79. Generation Process Series “living thing” or “animal.” From #6, 1982 then on, lovebirds became a Acrylic on ceramic and wood 3 1/2 × 19 1/2 × 19 1/2 inches significant symbol for Wilke, (8.9 × 49.5 × 49.5 cm) representing love, caring, and Hannah Wilke Collection the cycle of life. & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, ⚫ London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Work in Focus: #82 80. Generation Process Series 82. Portrait of the Artist with #15, 1982 Her Mother, Selma Butter, Acrylic on ceramic and wood 1978–81 3 1/2 × 19 1/2 × 19 1/2 inches Cibachrome prints, 2003 (8.9 × 49.5 × 49.5 cm) Each: 40 × 30 inches Hannah Wilke Collection (101.6 × 76.2 cm) & Archive, Los Angeles. Hannah Wilke Collection & Courtesy Alison Jacques, Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy London, and Marc Selwyn Alison Jacques, London Fine Art, Los Angeles How do you represent pain in a culture that only values
37 health, happiness, and youth, together, Wilke asks us to especially in women? Seeming consider the bonds of love, to ponder this question, Wilke empathy, and biology that paired these two portraits. connect the two women. On the left we see Wilke in a ⚫ photograph from 1978, and on the right is her mother Selma in 1981. Their poses mirror one another, and their heads incline together, connecting the two women across time and circumstance. Wearing heavy makeup and boldly engaging the camera, Wilke interrogates her position as a conventionally beautiful woman in a culture that objectifies people based on their appearances. The little objects on Wilke’s torso stand in for found objects she had collected for her former partner, the artist Claes Oldenburg. Here, they visualize Wilke’s emotional and : Part One : Part psychological wounds through y their resemblance to scars. The photograph of Selma shows the scar of her mastectomy covered in small sores caused by the cancer that had returned. This photograph reveals Selma as aging and ailing. These are experiences that visual culture does not often make room for, and yet they are realities of life. By bringing these photographs Lower East Galler Lower
38 “I guess that I can finally accept the fact that she died, knowing that she lives inside me. Although she lost her breast with the cancer that finally ate up her body, she knew what it was like to live. She was a woman of wisdom, courage, and love. She gave me spirit, mind, and also my body.14
—Hannah Wilke
14Wilke quoted in Montano, “Hannah Wilke Interview,” 141.
39 Gallery Part Two hands in sketchbooks that she kept with her during The second part of the hospitalization (#86, 87). With gallery focuses on the work these works, Wilke continued that Wilke created following her lifelong exploration of her her own diagnosis of non- ever-changing relationship to Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1987. her own body and image. With honesty and humor, ⚫ vulnerability and persistent vitality, Wilke documented the 83. Intra-Venus Series No. 6, February changes to her body through 19, 1992, 1992 the stages of her illness Performalist Self-Portrait and treatment. Her prolific with Donald Goddard creativity during this period is Chromogenic supergloss print with overlaminate a testament to her continued 47 1/2 × 71 1/2 inches belief in the life-affirming (120.7 × 181.6 cm) power of art. Collection of Donald and Helen Goddard. Courtesy Ronald Many of these works are Feldman Gallery, New York part of her Intra-Venus series. The title alludes 84. Intra-Venus Triptych, 1992–93 to Venus, the Roman Performalist Self-Portrait with Donald Goddard goddess of love, as well as Chromogenic supergloss prints to the intravenous medical with overlaminate treatments Wilke received. Each: 26 1/4 × 39 1/2 inches (66.7 × 100.3 cm)
: Part Two : Part In the monumental Hannah Wilke Collection & y photographs, Wilke Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy affirms the life of her Alison Jacques, London, and Marc body, even as that body Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles is compromised (#83–84, 85. About Face #4, 1989 89–91). We see an echo of 9 watercolors on paper the way she presented herself 49 1/4 × 40 1/4 inches in earlier work. Here, she (125.1 × 102.2 cm), framed continues to make visible Hannah Wilke Collection & and validate the parts Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy of her life as a woman that, Alison Jacques, London as she asserted, society did 86. Untitled, 1991 not value. Watercolor on paper 12 × 9 inches (30.5 × 22.9 cm) Wilke also created many Hannah Wilke Collection & drawings of her face and Lower East Galler Lower
40 Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 89. Intra-Venus Series No. 1, June Alison Jacques, London 15, 1992, and January 30, 1992, 1992 87. Intra-Venus Hand (NYC Hospital) Performalist Self-Portrait October 18, 1991, 1991 with Donald Goddard Watercolor on paper Chromogenic supergloss prints 12 1/2 × 9 1/4 inches (31.8 × 23.5 cm) with overlaminate Hannah Wilke Collection & 71 1/2 × 47 1/2 inches Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy (181.6 × 120.7 cm) Alison Jacques, London Collection of Donald and Helen Goddard. Courtesy Ronald Work in Focus: #88 Feldman Gallery, New York 90. Intra-Venus Series No. 4, July 88. Blue Skies, 1987–92 26 and February 19, 1992, 1992 Acrylic on ceramic and wood Performalist Self-Portrait 7 × 59 × 59 inches with Donald Goddard (17.8 × 149.9 × 149.9 cm) Chromogenic supergloss diptych Hannah Wilke Collection & with overlaminate Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Each: 72 1/4 × 48 1/4 inches Alison Jacques, London (183.5 × 122.6 cm) Swirls and streaks of pink, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy green, and blue paint activate Alison Jacques, London the folded clay sculptures of Blue Skies. This lively 91. Intra-Venus Face No. 10, February treatment underscores the 8, 1992, 1992 Watercolor on paper meaning of the title, which 12 1/2 × 9 1/2 inches (31.8 × 24.1 cm) is a reference to the popular Hannah Wilke Collection & 1926 song by composer Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Irving Berlin. When she was Alison Jacques, London a child, Wilke used to sing it with her mother and sister, Marsie Scharlatt. Its lyrics speak about better days ahead. Through the title we get a sense of Wilke’s optimism as she continued to receive treatment and hoped for a cure. ⚫
41 Vestibule into of thescope Wilke’s ambition. artistic giveusinsight These drawingsandmodels also references monumental architecture. strips of chewinggumto create thisform that the ideaof layeringbycastingrectangular Sculpturesin Pyramid (#95),Wilke buildson subject matter for yearsto come. For example, materials that wouldreflect thevalue of the reimagined herdelicate, ephemeralforms in Experimenting withmetal casting,Wilke sculptures (#94–95). she created for models large-scale, outdoor in 1979at OhioUniversity, Athens. There to residency castinbronze duringanartist To accomplishthisgoal,shelearnedhow male artists. public sculpture, arealm longdominated by to addherfeminist voiceto of thelandscape Shehadhoped to alackof financialsupport. pursued thisvisionbutcouldn’t realize itdue space onamonumental scale. Wilke actively Imagine seeingWilke’s sculptures inapublic 92. Untitled (Cityscape with Large Scale Sculpture), 1988 Ink and watercolor on cardboard with reverse image 8 1/2 × 11 inches (21.6 × 27.9 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
93. Model for Large Scale Sculpture in Steel or Bronze Cast, 1979 Magazine image and ink on paper 24 × 18 inches (61 × 45.7 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
94. Ohio, 1979 3 matte patina bronze sculptures 5 × 6 × 9 inches (12.7 × 15.2 × 22.9 cm) 3 × 5 × 8 inches (7.6 × 12.7 × 20.3 cm) 3 × 5 × 9 inches (7.6 × 12.7 × 22.9 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
95. Pyramid Sculptures, Models for Large Scale Outdoor Sculptures, 1975–80 2 silver sculptures: 2 × 2 1/4 × 3/4 inches (5.1 × 5.7 × 1.9 cm), each; 3 bronze sculptures: 1 × 2 × 1 inches (2.5 × 5.1 × 2.5 cm), each Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
43 Lower West Gallery videotape filmedat Wilke’s Greene Street studio, March 21,1985. 15 Wilke, quoted inErnstWeber, “Oasisd’NeonVideo Magazine Talks HannahWilke,” WithArtist aone-hour profound andjoyfulengagement withlife. fornatural possibilities amore worldopened of freedom from culturalconstraints. The offered for scope her feminist fantasies change. Both vast andintimate, theoutdoors For Wilke, life movement wasabout and for herdeath.” watch theflowersdie, of aspreparation sort mother’s illness:“Iusedto drawflowersand theminthecontextShe spoke about of her life, andWilke embracedthismeaningaswell. andthecycleofalso associated withmortality oftraditional symbol femininity. Flowersare growth, accentuating thevitalityof this sculptures refer to petals, buds, andblooming flowers.especially Manyof her drawingsand qualitiesofand symbolic natural forms, Wilke often took inspiration from thevisual months of herlife. earliest intheshow—to 1992,duringthefinal dating from herstudent daysin1959—the explored throughout hercareer, inworks wide rangeof mediaandtechniques she Wilke’s practice. highlightsthe Thisgallery inspired bynature, aperennial themein The exhibition concludeswithworks 15 Work in Focus: #96 Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 96. Hello Boys, 1975 Alison Jacques, London Black-and-white video with sound 98. Sea Wall, 1975 12 min Kneaded erasers on postcard and Hannah Wilke Collection & painted board in Plexiglas box Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Overall: 15 3/4 × 17 3/4 × 2 3/4 inches Electronic Arts Intermix, New York (40 × 45.1 × 7 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Shot through a fish tank, Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Wilke bobs around like she’s Alison Jacques, London underwater. She flirts with 99. Seashore, 1975 the fish to The Who’s album Kneaded erasers on postcard and Quadrophenia, including painted board in Plexiglas box the song “The Real Me.” Overall: 15 3/4 × 17 3/4 × 2 inches Throughout her career, Wilke (40 × 45.1 × 5.1 cm) balked at the way people Collection of Donald and Helen tried to stereotype her. In this Goddard. Courtesy Ronald video, she playfully subverts Feldman Gallery, New York one such stereotype, the 100. Hannah Manna, 1985–86 femme fatale. 77 painted sculptures on painted board with hand-typed, The title Hello Boys brings to signed wall plaque under glass mind a woman addressing Overall dimensions variable a group of men, pleasurably Hannah Wilke Collection & aware of her sexual power. Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy As the trope goes, openly Alison Jacques, London sexual, self-aware women are dangerous, luring men Works in Focus: to destruction. In the video, Wilke’s sensual movements #101–106 are paired with silly antics, 101. Untitled (Gum on Acorn, suggesting a light-hearted, Los Angeles) from the Gum in joyful, and non-threatening Landscape Series, 1977 embrace of sexuality. Archival pigment print, 2019 24 × 36 inches (61 × 91.4 cm) ⚫ Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison 97. Barber’s Pond, 1975 Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Kneaded erasers on postcard and Fine Art, Los Angeles painted board in Plexiglas box Overall: 15 3/8 × 17 3/8 × 3 inches (39.1 × 44.1 × 7.6 cm)
45 102. Untitled (Gum in Grass, Princeton, Wilke sometimes took her NJ) from the Gum in Landscape gum sculptures out into the Series, 1977 lush playground of nature. Archival pigment print, 2019 For Wilke, these sculptures 24 × 36 inches (61 × 91.4) Hannah Wilke Collection & proposed an unabashed Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy embrace of the body— Alison Jacques, London, and Marc including the parts that Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles society deemed shameful 103. Untitled (Gum on Palm Fronds, or lowly. Shaped to refer Los Angeles) from the Gum in to genitalia, their meanings Landscape Series, 1976 build and shift depending on Archival pigment print, 2019 the context. Perched on an 24 × 36 inches (61 × 91.4 cm) open blossom or nestled in Hannah Wilke Collection & grasses, away from society, Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy we can understand the gum Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles sculptures as emphasizing the body as our means of 104. Untitled (Gum on Red Flower, connecting with nature and Los Angeles) from the Gum in the wider world. Landscape Series, 1976 Archival pigment print, 2019 ⚫ 24 × 36 inches (61 × 91.4) Hannah Wilke Collection & 107. Untitled, 1983 Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Painted ceramic Alison Jacques, London, and Marc 4 3/16 × 10 1/4 × 5 inches Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles (10.6 × 26 × 12.7 cm) The Jewish Museum, New York, 105. Untitled (Gum with Berries) from y Gift of Ellen and Fred Harris, the California Series, 1976 20127 ‑3 Archival pigment print, 2019 24 × 36 inches (61 × 91.4 cm) 108. Untitled, ca. 1970 Hannah Wilke Collection & Latex, plywood, metal push pins Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy 20 7/8 × 17 3/4 × 4 3/4 inches Alison Jacques, London, and Marc (53 × 45.1 × 12 cm) Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Collection of Alison Jacques, London 106. Untitled (Gum on Rocks) from the Gum in Landscape Series, 1976 109. Roses, 1973 Archival pigment print, 2019 Watercolor and pencil on paper 24 × 36 inches (61 × 91.4 cm) 18 × 24 inches (45.7 × 61 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Alison Jacques, London Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles Lower West Galler West Lower
46 110. Untitled, ca. 1970s 116. Untitled, 1991 Watercolor on paper Watercolor on paper 22 × 30 inches (55.9 × 76.2 cm) 12 × 9 inches (30.5 × 22.9 cm) Collection of Marguerite Hannah Wilke Collection & Steed Hoffman. Courtesy Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London Alison Jacques, London
111. Rosebud, 1976 Latex, metal snaps, and pushpins 24 × 92 × 8 inches (61 × 233.7 × 20.3 cm) Collection of Edward Lee. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
112. Untitled, 1978 Sepia ink on paper 22 1/4 × 30 inches (56.5 × 76.2 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles
113. Untitled, ca. 1978 Sepia ink on paper 17 × 22 3/4 inches (43.2 × 57.8 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London, and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles
114. Untitled, 1990 Black ink on paper 22 1/4 × 30 inches (56.5 × 76.2 cm) Collection of Marsie Scharlatt. Gift of the Artist. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
115. Self-Portrait with Flowers, ca. 1958 Unique woodcut on rice paper Exhibition print on rice paper, 2021 Archival pigment print, 2021 20 5/8 × 16 3/4 inches (52.4 × 42.5 cm) Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Courtesy Alison Jacques, London
47 “I guess I’ve experienced so much death that I’m interested in life, and affirming life… reaffirming life.”16
—Hannah Wilke
16Wilke, quoted in Weber, “Artist Hannah Wilke Talks with Ernst.”
48 49 Credits Society (ARS),NY / LicensedbyVAGA Rights at Artists Wilke Collection&Archive, Los Angeles Family,© 2021Scharlatt Hannah Collection &Archive, Los Angeles. ofImages courtesy HannahWilke early 1970s Page 45:HannahWilke inSt. Louis, ca. Street studio, NewYork, 1975 Page 4:HannahWilke inherGreene Photos dedicated Board of Directors. well asthePulitzer’s talented staff and for HannahWilke: Life’sof Art Sake, as thecreationworkers whosupported Thank youto allof thecollaborators and Thank You 50 We’re Listening
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Upcoming Exhibition
Assembly Required March 4, 2022–July 31, 2022
Assembly Required will feature eight artists whose work invites your active participation. You may build, shape, and use these artworks, collaboratively or on your own. The artists were selected based on a shared belief that public action is vital for transforming society.
Created between the 1960s and the present, the artworks in this exhibition respond to distinct social and political moments, from unrest in the United States during the Vietnam War to Peru’s military dictatorship. The artists offer unique perspectives on social change, addressing the need for optimism and hope in the face of global tensions.
Including works by Francis Alÿs, Rasheed Araeen, Siah Armajani, Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Yoko Ono, Lygia Pape, and Franz Erhard Walther, Assembly Required asks questions about how art allows us to imagine new ways of being in the world. After Your Visit Your After
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