Hassinger (Maren) papers, 1956-2021, undated

View only results with digital items

Printable guide [HTML]

Summary

Title:

Maren Hassinger papers

Dates:

1956-2021, undated

Creators:

Hassinger, Maren

Abstract:

Correspondence, sketches, notebooks, journals, photographs, printed materials, audiovisual materials, born-digital items, architectural plans, installation notes, and exhibition maquettes comprise the Maren Hassinger papers, documenting her nearly fifty-year career as one of the most significant African American artists of the latter half of the twentieth century. The archive highlights Hassinger's artistic collaborations, her creative process, as well as her contributions to arts education.

Extent:

133 Linear Feet (99 boxes, 17 flatfile folders, 4 boxed-rolls)

Language:

Collection material is in English.

Preferred citation:

Maren Hassinger papers, 1956-2020, undated, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2022.M.29.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/archives2022m29

Background

Scope and content:

The collection is comprised of professional and personal files such as notebooks, planning notes, phone messages, printed biographies of Hassinger, and photographs, most notably early photography by Hassinger during her undergraduate years at Bennington College, and portraits of Hassinger by Adam Avila and Dawoud Bey. The professional files also include papers related to a possible unrealized project with Senga Nengudi titled "Our Book." Correspondence in the collection covers personal and professional topics involving collaborations and projects. Materials relating to Hassinger's solo and group exhibitions, performances, and public installations contain correspondence, exhibition ephemera, handwritten notes, photographs, slides, negatives, audiovisual materials, born-digital materials, architectural plans, installation layouts, research files, maquettes, posters, dried leaves, reviews, and catalogs. Teaching-related materials include correspondence, memoranda, teaching contracts, teaching schedules, course syllabi, teacher evaluations, teaching notes, student essays, research files, course materials, meeting notes, Maryland Institute College of Art's (MICA) Rinehart Studios renovation project documents, and invitations to prospective guest lecturers at MICA between 1981 and 2009.

Biographical / historical:

Maren Hassinger is an African American multi-media artist and educator known for her work in sculpture, installation, performance, and video art. She was born Maren Louise Jenkins in 1947 in Los Angeles, California.

Initially trained as a dancer, Hassinger intended to pursue a major in dance at Bennington College in 1965 but did not get accepted to the program. Encouraged by her mentor, Isaac Witkin (1936-2006), Hassinger shifted her focus to major in sculpture, while continuing her dance training through night classes. Her passion for dance impacted her work, particularly in the way she explored the relationship of her sculptures to a specific space. After graduating in 1969, Hassinger returned to Los Angeles, where married Peter Hassinger, with whom she had two children. In 1970, she pursued a master's degree in fine arts. In an experience that mirrored that of Bennington, Hassinger was not accepted into the University of California, Los Angeles' (UCLA) Sculpture program. Bernard Kester, a professor of Media Arts, recognized her talent and encouraged her to major in Fiber Arts, a newly established department that Kester co-founded at UCLA. Hassinger received her MFA in Fiber Arts from UCLA in 1973. While at UCLA, she began collaborating with the Studio Z collective, which consisted of African American artists such as David Hammons, Ulysses Jenkins, and Houston Conwill to create new experimental art. The collective performed in unconventional spaces in Los Angeles such as freeway underpasses, abandoned buildings, parks, construction sites, and gardens, exploring the interplay of movement, energy, and space. It was also during this time that Hassinger met her longtime artistic partner, Senga Nengudi (1943- ), whose work similarly integrated sculpture and dance. Together, they collaborated in staged performances such as R.S.V.P. (1977), Ceremony for Freeway Frets (1978), and Voices (1984).

In addition to her artistic practice, Hassinger also made significant contributions to art education. She had several teaching appointments at colleges such as California State University, Los Angeles, Hunter College, and State University of New York at Stony Brook, and from 1997 to 2017, she served as the Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). During her tenure at MICA, Hassinger invited curators, artists, and art critics such as Jerri Allyn, Edgar Heap of Birds, and Arlene Raven to foster new creative avenues.

Hassinger's works have been acquired and exhibited at institutions such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, the California African American Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Among numerous grants, residencies, and awards, Hassinger held an artist residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem from 1984 to 1985, during which she continued creating sculptures from wire rope that mimicked natural forms and vegetation. Her public commissions include Fence of Leaves (1995) for P.S. 8 and Ancestor Walk (1996) for P.S. 176. Hassinger received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for Art in 2015. She continues to be active in her artwork using newspapers, pink plastic bags, branches, trash, and wire to explore themes of race, equality, identity, and nature.

Sources:

An Oral History with Maren Hassinger by Lowery Stokes Sims, BOMB Magazine, https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2018/09/25/maren-hassinger-1/.

Brooks, LeRonn. Acquisition Approval Form for the "Maren Hassinger Archive," accession no. 2022.M.29, April 22, 2022.

Hassinger, Maren, and Hillwood Art Museum. Maren Hassinger, 1972-1991. Brookville, N.Y.: Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, 1991.

"Maren Hassinger," Susan Inglett Gallery, accessed July 9, 2024, https://www.inglettgallery.com/artists/255-maren-hassinger/overview/.

Acquisition information:

Acquired in 2022.

Custodial history:

The items in this archive were all either created by or received by Maren Hassinger, and they have remained in her possession since creation.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in seven series: Series I. Notebooks and journals, 1965-2020, undated; Series II. Personal files, 1956-2013, undated; Series III. Correspondence, 1973-2014, undated; Series IV. Projects and exhibitions, 1973-2020; Series V. Professional activities, 1970-2016; Series VI. Teaching files, 1972-2017; Series VII. Ephemera and clippings, 1974-2009.

Physical location:

Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:: Emmabeth Nanol
Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-11-05 09:34:06 -0800 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers. Audiovisual and born digital materials are unavailable until reformatted.

Boxes 98 and 99 containing social security information of students, professors, and visiting artists are SEALED until 2092.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.