Correspondence Course: An Epistolary History of Carolee Schneemann and Her Circle

by Kristine Stiles (Editor), Carolee Schneemann (Editor)

Creator of such acclaimed works as the performance Meat Joy and the film Fuses , for decades the artist Carolee Schneemann has saved the letters she has written and received. Much of this correspondence is published here for the first time, providing an epistolary history of Schneemann and other figures central to the international avant-garde of happenings, Fluxus, performance, and conceptual art. Schneemann corresponded for more than forty years with such figures as the composer James Tenney, the filmmaker Stan Brakhage, the artist Dick Higgins, the dancer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer, the poet Clayton Eshleman, and the psychiatrist Joseph Berke. Her “tribe,” as she called it, altered the conditions under which art is made and the form in which it is presented, shifting emphasis from the private creation of unique objects to direct engagement with the public in ephemeral performances and in expanded, nontraditional forms of music, film, dance, theater, and literature. Kristine Stiles selected, edited, annotated, and wrote the introduction to the letters, assembling them so that readers can follow the development of Schneemann’s art, thought, and private and public relationships. The correspondence chronicles a history of energy and invention, joy and sorrow, and charged personal and artistic struggles. It sheds light on the internecine aesthetic politics and mundane activities that constitute the exasperating vicissitudes of making art, building an artistic reputation, and negotiating an industry as unpredictable and demanding as the art world in the mid- to late twentieth century.

Genres: Art

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Carolee Schneemann is a multidisciplinary artist whose painting, photography, film, video, performance art, and installation works have been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), the National Film Theatre (London), and Anthology Film Archives (New York). She is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Womens Caucus for Art and the author of Imaging Her Erotics, More Than Meat Joy, and Cezanne, She Was a Great Painter, among other publications."

Reviews

[Jeanmarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carolee Schneemann's correspondence, 1956-1999. Letters to and from James Tenney, Dick Higgins, Stan Brakhage. . . I think that letters and biographies are the best way to learn the history of a period you know little about. Seriously, now I know something - maybe even more than something - about Happenings, Fluxus, and kinetic art. But - even though I loved this book, I have to stop agreeing to review 600 page books. At least not too many of them.