The archive documents Schneemann's performances, happenings, film and book production, and exhibitions from 1959-1994. It includes original materials relating to performances and publication projects in the form of notes, drawings, performance scripts and manuscripts; correspondence with visual, literary and performing artists, art critics, and other individuals prominent in the international avant-garde; printed ephemera, artists' books, and Fluxus objects by Schneemann and others; lecture notes and other materials pertaining to Schneemann as teacher and lecturer; research files on performance and feminist topics; manuscripts by others about Schneemann's work; and photograph albums which provide visual documentation of much of her performance work.

Carolee Schneemann actively engaged in performance art, experimental film-making, the Fluxus movement and feminist theory in the 1960s and 1970s. She is best known for the provocative use of her nude body to explore personal expression, sexual taboos and feminism in both multi-media performances and solo improvisational work. Born in 1939, Schneemann studied painting at Bard College, Columbia University, The New School, and the University of Illinois. Her performance work evolved out of a desire to express more than she could within the confines of her paintings, and retains some of the gestural qualities of abstract expressionism and the cluttered look of assemblage. In addition to choreographing her own scripts, Schneemann participated in some of the most influential events of the 1960s, including: Philip Corner's "An Environment for Sound and Motion" at the Living Theater (1962), Claes Oldenburg's "Store Days" (1962), Robert Rauschenberg's theater experiments, Robert Morris' "Site" (1964), and in Fluxus concerts.

60 Linear Feet (123 boxes)

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