Carolee Schneemann
While still in college, Schneemann adopted a feminist perspective, citing the hierarchal ideals of the 1950s American gallery system, the negative attitudes of male teachers, and the erasure of women's art history as influences. She incorporates feminist ideas into her art as well as her writing, teaching and lecturing, constantly reaffirming her position as a pivotal figure in the feminist movement.
Schneemann's explorations in the early 1960s opened performance art to include inquiries about sensuality and sexuality. Prior to her works, the majority of performance art was formal experimentation, rather than a specific investigation into the taboo realm of the liberating possibilities of the sexual female body.
By using her body as her primary medium, Schneemann emphasized women's agency, situating women as both the creator and an active part of the creation itself, giving the female form in art a subjectivity it previously lacked. She firmly established her practice in opposition to the traditional representation of women merely as nude objects.
Carolee Schneemann (October 12, 1939 – March 6, 2019) was an American visual experimental artist, known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. in poetry and philosophy[3] from Bard College and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois. Originally a painter in the Abstract Expressionist tradition, Schneeman was uninterested in the masculine heroism of New York painters of the time and turned to performance-based work,[4]primarily characterized by research into visual traditions, taboos, and the body of the individual in relation to social bodies.[5] Although renowned for her work in performance and other media, Schneemann began her career as a painter, saying: "I'm a painter. I'm still a painter and I will die a painter. Everything that I have developed has to do with extending visual principles off the canvas." Her works have been shown at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the London National Film Theatre, and many other venues.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015 Kinetic Painting, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria, curated by Sabine Breitwieser Carolee Schneemann: Infinity Kisses, The Merchant House, Amsterdam, Netherlands Carolee Schneemann, The Artist’s Institute, New York, NY, USA
2014 Water Light/Water Needle, Hales Gallery, UK
2013 Then and Now Carolee Schneemann: Oeuvres d’Histoire, Musee departemental d’art contemporain Rochechouart, France
Flange 6rpm, P·P·O·W Gallery, New York, NY
WRO Center, Wroclaw, Poland
Sweden Bienalle, Gothenburg, Sweden
Carolee Schneemann: Infinity Kisses, Galerie Samuel Lallouz, Montreal, Canada Sammlung Friedrichshof Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Taking Matters Into Our Own Hands, Richard Saltoun, London, England
2012 Remains to be Seen, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
Carolee Schneemann: Remains to be Seen, Edinburgh Art Festival, Summerhall, Edin- burgh, United Kingdom
Carolee Schneemann: Within and Beyond the Premises, Krannert Art Museum, Univer- sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2011 Carolee Schneemann: Within and Beyond the Premises, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Circa 1971: Early Video & Film from the EAI Archive, Dia:Beacon, New York, NY
2010 Carolee Schneemann: Up To and Including Her Limits, Gallery One One One, Winnipeg, Canada
Carolee Schneemann: Within and Beyond the Premises, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz,NY
2009 Painting, What It Became, P·P·O·W Gallery, New York, NY
Carolee Schneemann: Performance Photographs from the 1970s, Carolina Nitsch Pro-
Carolee Schneemann: Performance Photographs from the 1970s, Carolina Nitsch Project Room, NewYork, NY
2007 Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge. MA Breaking Borders, MOCCA, Toronto, Canada Remains to be Seen, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2006 Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
CORPOREAL – Photographic Works 1963-2005, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2005 Devour, Articule, Montreal, Canada
2004 Infinity Kisses, Remy Toledo Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Embodied, P·P·O·W Gallery, New York, NY Gallerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
2001 Carolee Schneemann, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK More Wrong Things, White Box Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Vespers Pool, Emily Harvey Gallery, New York, NY
1999 Carolee Schneemann: Drawing Performance, Art Gallery at University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME
Carolee Schneemann: Strike, Mark, Motion, Mabel Smith Douglass Galleries, Rutgers University, New
Brunswick, NJ
1997 Carolee Schneemann, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY Schneemann in Bonn, Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany
1996 Fragments of Known/Unknown Plague Column, Galerie Samuel Lallouz, Montreal, Canada
Known/Unknown Plague Column, Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, NY
1995 Carolee Schneemann: Compositions with Interior Scroll, Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery, New York, NY
Kunstraum, Vienna, Austria
Something Special: Carolee Schneemann Recent Prints and Photographs, Galerie Krinz- inger, Vienna, Austria
Recent Prints: Perceptual Pollution – Benday and Pixel, Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Rhode
1994 Penine Hart Gallery, New York, NY Syracuse University, New York, NY
1992 Tangeman Fine Arts Gallery, Cincinnati, OH Randolph St. Gallery, Chicago, IL
1991 Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1990 Emily Harvey Gallery, New York, NY
1988 Self-Shot, Emily Harvey Gallery, New York, NY
1986 Recent & Early Work, Henri Gallery, Washington DC
1985 Recent Work, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, NY
1984 Kent State University, Department of Fine Arts, University Gallery, Kent, OH Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Performed Paintings and Works on Paper, Kleinart Gallery, Woodstock, NY
1983 Recent Work, Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, NY
Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH
Works on Paper, Rutgers University, Douglass College, New Brunswick, NJ
Selected Collections
ARCO Museum, Madrid, Spain
Archives of Modern Art, Zagreb, Croatia
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, California
Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National D’art Moderne, Paris, France
Commune di Milano, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
Franklin Furnace, New York, New York
The Getty Center for the History of Arts and the Humanities, Santa Monica, California
Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburg Kunst Museum, Hamburg, Germany
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C
Hoffmann Museum, Dresden, Germany
Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England
Institute of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Ludwig Collection, Cologne, Germany
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Muzeum Wspólczesne, Wroclaw, Poland
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Musée Départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart, Rochechouart, France
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, New York
Peter Norton Collection, Santa Monica, California
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Reykjavik Art Museum, Reyjavik, Iceland
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
University of Massachusetts, Contemporary Archives, Boston, Massachusetts
The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Selected Private Collections
Jay Henry Brac - New York, New York Francesco Conz – Verona, Italy
Ger Bout – Rotterdam, Holland Guilbaud Family – Paris, France
Hoffman Collection – Dresden, Germany Hubert Klocker – Vienna, Austria Johnson - Sodel – New York, New York Stephan J. Pascher – New York, New York Placido Arango – Madrid, Spain
Robert Schiffler Collection – Greenville, Ohio
May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation - New York, New York Charles Isaacs
Pension Trust - New York, New York
Collezione La Gaia – Italy
Paul McCarthy – California