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Schneemann (Carolee) Papers
950001
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Carolee Schneemann papers
Creator:
Burns, Gerald
Creator:
Constantinides, Kathy, 1936-
Creator:
Bergé, Carol, 1928-2006
Creator:
Brakhage, Stan
Creator:
Eshleman, Clayton
Creator:
Friedman, Ken, 1949-
Creator:
Copp, Fletcher
Creator:
Corner, Philip
Creator:
Hendricks, Geoffrey
Creator:
Higgins, Dick, 1938-1998
Creator:
Giorno, John
Creator:
Hendricks, Bici
Creator:
Kultermann, Udo
Creator:
Lebel, Jean-Jacques
Creator:
Kaprow, Allan
Creator:
Ay-o, 1931-
Creator:
Andersen, Eric
Creator:
Vostell, Wolf, 1932-1998
Creator:
Wikarska, Carol
Creator:
Tillman, Lynne
Creator:
Varèse, Edgard, 1883-1965
Creator:
Schneemann, Carolee, 1939-2019
Creator:
Sondheim, Alan
Creator:
Rothenberg, Jerome, 1931-
Creator:
Sayre, Henry M., 1948-
Creator:
Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-
Creator:
Johnson, Ray, 1927-1995
Creator:
Rogala, Miroslaw
Creator:
Moore, Peter, 1932-1993
Creator:
Moorman, Charlotte
Creator:
McCall, Anthony
Creator:
McPherson, Bruce R. (Bruce Rice), 1951-
Creator:
Lerner & Turner
Creator:
Malloy, Judy, 1942-
Identifier/Call Number: 950001
Physical Description:
60 Linear Feet
(123 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1959-1994
Abstract: 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.
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 .
Language of Material:
English
.
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.
The archive is arranged in ten series: Series I. Projects; Series II. Notes; Series III. Correspondence; Series IV. Ephemera
and objects; Series V. Teaching and students' work; Series VI. Feminist research files; Series VII. Film and performance files;
Series VIII. Other clippings; Series IX. Writings about or by Schneemann; Series X. Performance albums.
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.
Schneemann made many films, some of an experimental nature and others which documented her performances. "Fuses" (1964-67),
her most notorious film, presents a woman's perspective of intimacy and eroticism. The film was edited for two years, during
which time Schneemann burned, scratched, painted, glued, and layered its images to create a fluid sense of sexuality. In the
1970s, Schneemann conducted research on earth goddesses and ancient mythology in search of female power structures. She realized
that a certain component of her work had always explored these themes, such as the use of snakes in "Eye Body" (1963). Schneemann's
studies permeate her writings and her classes on art and theory. After the mid-1970s, Schneemann performed infrequently, preferring
instead to concentrate on painting, exhibiting, lecturing and teaching. She died in 2019.
Fourteen titles were separated from the archive August 1995 and transferred to the Library's General Collections:
Brakhage, Stan.
Brakhage Scrapbook: Collected Writings,
1964-1980
. New Paltz, New York: Documentext, 1982. 3
copies.
Kelly, Robert.
Cat Scratch Fever:
Fictions
. Kingston, New York: McPherson, 1990.
Desani, G.V.
Hali and Collected Stories. Kingston, New York: McPherson
& Co., 1991.
Baruchello, Gianfranco.
How to
Imagine: a Narrative on Art and Agriculture
. New Paltz, New York: McPherson,
1983.
Ascher/Straus... et al.
Likely Stories: a
Collection of Untraditional Fiction
. New Paltz, New York: Treacle Press,
1981.
The Music of James Tenney. Edited by
Peter Garland. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Soundings Press, 1984.
McEvilley,
Thomas.
North of Yesterday, or, Flowers of Waz: a Novel.
New Paltz, New York: McPherson, 1987.
Rose, Howard.
Oak Street Beach: a Novel. Olive Bridge, New York: Raymond Saroff,
1990.
Rose, Howard.
The Pooles of Pismo Bay: a
Novel
. Olive Bridge, New York: R. Saroff, 1990.
Rose, Howard.
Twelve Ravens; a Novel. Olive Bridge, New York: Raymond
Saroff, 1990.
Baruchello, Gianfranco.
Why Duchamp:
an Essay on Aesthetic Impact
. New Paltz, New York: McPherson, 1985.
Lynda Bunting unpacked, processed and wrote the box list and catalog record from August 1995 to March 1996. Kelly Nipper assisted
by processing Series IX. Writings about or by Schneemann and describing some albums in Series X. Performance Albums.
Acquired 1995.
Carolee Schneemann papers, 1959-1994, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 950001.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa950001
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Library Rights and Reproductions .
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographs, Original
Photographic prints
Art, Modern -- 20th century
Experimental films -- United States
Notebooks
Body art
Sex in art
Feminism and art
Performance art -- United States
Censorship in art -- United States
Happening (Art)
Fluxus (Group of artists)
Dreams in art
Women artists -- Archives
Drawings
Women artists -- Archives