{"data":{"id":"4370","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":4370,"topgoose_id":80,"tms_id":4370,"display_name":"Eleanor Antin","sort_name":"Antin Eleanor","display_date":"1935–","begin_date":"1935","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eSince the late 1960s, Eleanor Antin’s work\nin film, video, performance, and installation\nart has questioned the immutability of\nidentity. Expanding upon the insistence of\nthe women’s movement that traditional\ngender roles are socially determined rather\nthan innate, in the mid-1970s Antin began\nto imagine, in art, a range of possible\nsubjectivities for herself. Commenting that\nthe “usual aids to self-definition,” such\nas sex, age, talent, and even time and space,\n“are merely tyrannical limitations upon my\nfreedom of choice,” she slid in and out\nof a set of archetypal “selves” informed by\ncomplex, fictitious narratives, costumes,\nand makeup.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyself—1855\u003c/em\u003e resembles a photo-\nalbum page, with a handwritten caption in\nfaded ink and a portrait photograph\nof Antin in the role of Eleanor Nightingale,\na fictionalized version of the founder\nof modern nursing, Florence Nightingale.\nWorking with a group of friends dressed in\nperiod costume, Antin staged elaborate\nscenes from Nightingale’s life, which\nshe captured in two suites of photographs,\nsome stained with coffee to lend them\na vintage patina. The first, \u003ca href=\"/collection/series/10244\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Nightingale\nFamily Album\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, to which this image\nbelongs, depicts the leisure pursuits of the\nVictorian aristocracy that Nightingale left\nbehind and her metamorphosis into a\ncaregiver. The second, \u003ca href=\"/collection/series/10245\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eMy Tour of Duty in\nthe Crimea\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, portrays Nightingale’s exploits\nin the Crimean War, the conflict during\nwhich she secured her reputation. Together\nthe suites form the series \u003cem\u003eThe Angel\nof Mercy\u003c/em\u003e. Alternately somber and funny,\nthe project addresses topics from\nclass and gender to charity and cruelty,\nusing Nightingale’s life and times as\na lens through which to consider identity\nand subjectivity.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500061710","wikidata_id":"Q1325708","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:28:10.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-23T01:30:49.415-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/4370/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/4370/exhibitions"}}}}