Carolee Schneemann November 24, 1996 - January 26, 1997 The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Carolee Schneeman: Up To And Including Her Limits Exhibition Organized by Dan Cameron Curator Dan Cameron The New Museum of Contempora1·y Art Exhibition coordinator Melanie Ft·anklin Novembet· 24, 1996 - Janua1·y 26, 1997 Exhibition supervision John Hatfield Installation coordinator Patt·icia Thornley © 1996 The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Programs coordinator Raina Lampkins-Fieldet· Curatorial interns Mani Ozgilik, Sefa Saglam All t·ights rese1·ved. No pa1·t of this book may be 1·eproduced in any form by electronic 01· Video editing Diete1· Froese mechanical means (including photocopying, 1·eco1·ding, or infonnation sto1·age and 1·et1·ieval) without pel'l11ission in writing from the publishet·. Catalogue Production Melanie Ft·anklin Libra1·y of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-71007 Des(gner Tony Mo1·gan, Step Gt·aphics ISBN 0-915557-80-0 Editor l<athy B1·ew Authors Dan Cameron, David Levi Stt-auss, l<l'istine Stiles The individual views expt·essed in the exhibition and publication are not necessal'ily those Custom photography Ben Caswell of The New Museum. Printing Becotte & Get·shwin The New Museum of Contempot·ary At·t 583 Broadway New Yot·k, NY 10012 Title page: Up ToAnd Including Her Limits, Feb1·ua1·y 13-14, 1976, The l<itchen, New Yol'I<, pedol'l11ance view. Photo: Shelley Fat·kas Davis �ack cover: Up To And Including Her Limits, June 10, 1976, Studiogalet·ie, Bel'lin, pe1·fol'l11ance view. Photo: Henrik Gaat·d Table of Contents 4 Acknowledgements 5 Intl'Oduction Marcia Tucker 7 In the Flesh Dan Cameron 15 Schlaget Auf: The Pl'Dblem with Cal'Olee Schneemann's Painting Kristine Stiles 26 Love Rides Aristotle Thl'Dugh the Audience: Body, Image, and Idea in the Work of Carolee Schneemann David Levi Strauss 35 Catalogue of Selected Works 55 Works in the Exhibition 58 Biog1-aphy 60 Selected Bibliography 3 Acknowledgements Because the nature of Carolee Schneemann's wo1·k has been to address I would like to acknowledge the contributions by the following pe1·sons to issues of a more or less transient nature - perfo1·mance, love, mortality the separate projects in Up ToAnd Including Her Limits: l<en·y Broughe1·, - it has relied on the support and participation over time of scOl'es of Los Angeles; Penine Hart, New York; Emily Harvey, New York; Giles individuals who have donated their skills and ene,·gy to realizing another's Herbert and Wayne Baerwaldt, Winnipeg; Max Hutchinson, New York; vision. On behalf of the artist, The New Museum of Contemporary Art Hubert Klocker, Vienna; Ursula l<rinzinger, Vienna; Samuel Lallouz, would like to acknowledge its debt to the many photographers, dancers, Montreal; Bob Riley, San F1·ancisco; and Elga Wimmer, New York. filmmakers, composers and other collaborators whose effo1·ts were essen­ A special mention of those photographers who have died, but whose tial in creating the works on view. images continue to enrich the visual history of my work: Pete,- Moore, Al This exhibition could not have taken place without the efforts of Giese, and Tony Ray-Jones. passionate individuals and foundations whose dedication to advanced art Video collaborators on this exhibition have been Maria Beatty, practices makes it possible fo1· The New Museum to pursue its mission. Mi rnslaw Rogala, and Victoria Vesna. Technical assistance was provided Special thanks are owed to the David and Penny McCall Foundation, the by Tom Brumley, Jay Dunn, Michael Joseph, and Doug Prnpp, as well as No1·ton Family Foundation, and the Andy Wa1·hol Foundation for the by Marvin Soloway of Guffanti Film Labs. Visual Arts for thei1· genernusdonations to this unde1·taking. We would I am ve1·y grnteful to Melissa Moreton, Joan Hotchkis, Kristine also like to thank Alexandra Anderson-Spivy and Eileen and Pete,- No1·to11 Stiles, Kathy Brew, Jay Murphy, Sara Seagull, James Tenney, Lauren who have graciously lent works to the exhibition. Pratt Tenney, Robert Mo1·ga11, Anthony McCall, Peter Huttinger, Bruce Although there are many col leagues at The New Museum whose McPherson, and Gale Elston, Esq. for thei1· suppo1·t. Very special thanks support of this exhibition and prngrams has been critical to its successful to James Schaeffer, Vesper, Oskar l<ollerstrom, Eve Bailey Lerner and, execution, I want to acknowledge especially Susan Cahan, Melanie always, my pa1·ents. Franklin, John Hatfield, Raina Lampkins-Fielder and, of course, Marcia Tucker. I am also indebted to the work of l<athy Brew, David Levi Strauss, CarnleeSchneemann Kristine Stiles, and Tony Morgan for their excellent contributions to the catalogue. The technical expertise of photographer Ben Caswell and video engineer Dieter Frnese were crucial to the catalogue and the exhibition. Finally, I respectfully appreciate the energy and suppo1·t of cu1·atorial interns Mani Ozgilik and Sefa Saglam, and the gracious participation of the artist's assistant, Melissa Mo1·eto11. This exhibition would not have been possible without the invaluable support and trust of the artist, whose perseverance and integrity continue to be an inspiration for many, not least of all me. Dan Camernn 4 Introduction In the early 1960s, as a graduate student in art history at NYU's Institute sculptural object blurred the boundaries between a,-t and artifact, private of Fine A1·ts, I was immersed by day in G 1·eek and Roman monuments, and public; and Meredith Monk's multiple-sited sound and movement Medieval manuscripts, and ea1-ly Flemish painting; by night, I was a pieces ,-efused categorization as opera, theater, music, 01· dance. habituee of Judson Memorial Church, the City Hall Cinema, Max's l<ansas Carolee Schneemann's work was equally difficult to pin down, but it City, and the Filmmaker's Cinematheque, where events, Happenings, and became controversial and ultimately marginalized because of the way she filmsby artists such as Robert Whitman, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, used her own body; her style was direct, sexual, autobiographical, and con­ Stan Brakhage, Robert Rauschenbe1·g, and Andy Warhol we1-e seen and frontational. Her wo1·k couldn't be called "conceptual" because it was too enthusiastically debated. By the mid 1960s, pedo,-mance played a major ,-aw, too emotive, too immediate. Nor did people perceive its connection to role in the New YDl'k a1-t wo1-ld, yet women were a conspicuous minority on "action" painting, which was firmly rooted in the heroic, male tradition. the scene. It was only afte1· 1968, when the first wave of the Women's And the1·e was very little familiarity on the pa1·t of the New York art world Movement hit New Yo1·k, that pieces by Meredith Monk, Yoko Ono, Rachel with the work of he,- European counterpa1·ts - Valie Export, Hermann Rosenthal, Yvonne Rainer, Hannah Wilke, Shigeko l<ubota, Charlotte N itsch and Rudolf Schwartzkogler in Austi-ia, and somewhat later Gina Moorman, Joan Jonas, Carolee Schneemann, and others began to take on Pane in Fi-ance and Marina Ab,·amovic in Yugoslavia. the accumulated force of a shift in collective thinking about a1·t. Schneemann's work, in the context of early feminist art activities, Certain things stand out in my mind about that period, from around was viewed by many at that time as libe,-ating; nonetheless, it ran counter 1968 to the mid-1970s. One was how p1·evalent the body had become as to prevailing feminist politics because it didn't seem to constitute a the mate1·ial of art. It was, after al I, a period when phenomenology was in critique of patl'iarchy. It had a little too much pleasu1·e, a little too much the air (pa1-ticularly through the writings of French philosopher Maurice (hetero)sexuality, and an uncompromising refusal on the part of the artist Me1-leau-Ponty), with its focus on the immediate experience of the corpo­ to justify herself to anyone. real body rather than rational thought as the primary means of under­ The New Museum's earlier exhibitions and programs provide a con­ standing the world. Brnce Nauman's films, video and "performance" text and rationale for p1·esenting Schneemann's wo,-k now, when it is pos­ pieces, which used such commonplace activities as pacing his studio floor, sible to see clearly not only the tl'ajectory of her ideas and the context in we,-e becoming well known in Europe and America; Yvonne Raine1·'s which they evolved, but their importance and influence for a younge1· gen­ dances, in which people walked, bent ove1-, sat and moved things from one eration of artists. Issues centering on the relationship of art to everyday part of the room to another, were hotly debated in terms of traditional life, as manifested in performance work of all kinds, have always been dance movement; Joan Jonas's investigation of he1- body as a centi-al to The New Museum's programming, from the presentation of Jeff 5 Way's metamo1-phic "dance" pieces in New Work/New York (1978), to Choices: Making An Art of Everyday Life (1986), to Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose's Visiting Hours (1994). Simila1-ly, the inte1-face between art, feminism and pe1-formance has been explo1-ed in a variety of contexts at The New Museum, ranging from Gina Wendkos's Four Blondes (1980), a performance on the sidewalk out­ side our 14th Street Window, to presentations by Carmelita Tropicana and Penny Arcade. In between, we've presented innovative pieces by Jo Ha1-vey Allen, Linda Montano, Jana Sterbak, Ann Hamilton, the V-Girls, Adrian Piper, Ethyl Eichelberger, DanceNoise, Jen-i Allyn, Reno, the Living Paintings, Marina Abramovic, Mona Hatoum, Alva Rodgers, and Lau1-ie Pai-sons, as well as major exhibitions that centered on specificfeminist issues, such as Difference: On Representation and Sexuality (1984-85); Girls Night0ut(l988); Mary l<elly's Interim (1990); and Bad Girls (1994).