Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting

FIRST U.S. RETROSPECTIVE FOCUSED ON PIONEERING ARTIST CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN OPENS IN OCTOBER 2017

(Long Island City, NY – January 23, 2017) - MoMA PS1 will present the first U.S. retrospective of the work of Carolee Schneemann (American, b. 1939) in fall 2017, spanning the artist’s prolific six-decade career. As one of the most influential artists of the second part of the twentieth century, Schneemann’s pioneering investigations into subjectivity, the social construction of the female body, and the cultural biases of art history have had significant influence on subsequent generations of artists.

Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting begins with rarely seen examples of the artist’s early paintings from the 1950s and their evolution into assemblages made in the 1960s, which integrated objects, mechanical elements, and modes of deconstruction. In the late 1960s, Schneemann began positioning her own body within her work, performing the roles of “both image and image-maker.” As a central protagonist of the New York downtown avant-garde community, she explored hybrid artistic forms culminating in experimental theater events. By tracing the developments that led to Schneemann’s groundbreaking innovations in performance, film, and installation in the 1970s, as well as her increasingly spatialized multimedia installations from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, the exhibition embeds Schneemann’s oeuvre within the context of painting.

Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting is organized by the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. The exhibition is curated by Sabine Breitwieser, Director, Museum der Moderne Salzburg; and consulting curator Branden W. Joseph, Frank Gallipolli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Columbia University, New York; and organized at MoMA PS1 by Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Assistant Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art; with Oliver Shultz, Curatorial Assistant, MoMA PS1.

Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting originated at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria, from November 21, 2015 to February 28, 2016, and will travel to the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 2017.

The catalog Carolee Schneemann. Kinetic Painting was published in conjunction with the exhibition in separate German and English editions. This major publication is the first of its kind on Carolee Schneemann’s work, edited by Sabine Breitwieser for the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, featuring essays by Sabine Breitwieser, Branden W. Joseph, Mignon Nixon, Ara Osterweil, and Judith Rodenbeck, as well as selected writings by Carolee Schneemann. Separate German and English editions, hardcover, 280 x 240 mm, 320 pp., Munich: Prestel.

Carolee Schneemann is a multidisciplinary artist who has worked in painting, photography, performance, film, video, mixed media, and installations. Schneemann has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Musée départemental d'art contemporain de Rochechouart, France (2013); the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain (2014); Dia:Beacon, New York (2011); and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1997), and group exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Haus der Kunst, Germany; and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; among others. Schneemann’s work is included in museum collections around the world, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Tate Modern, England; Centre Georges Pompidou, France; and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. Schneemann currently lives and works in upstate New York.

The exhibition is made possible by the MoMA PS1 Annual Exhibition Fund.