{"data":{"id":"9689","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":9689,"topgoose_id":545,"tms_id":9689,"display_name":"Carolee Schneemann","sort_name":"Schneemann Carolee","display_date":"1939–2019","begin_date":"1939","end_date":"2019","biography":"\u003cp\u003eA seminal figure in the development of\nnon-object-based art in the postwar era,\nCarolee Schneemann scrutinizes the\ndominant structures of society through her\nprovocative, celebratory, and sensorial\nart. Her multidisciplinary practice—which\nincludes performance, installation,\nfilm, video, painting, drawing, and writing—\nhas dealt frankly with sexuality, taboos,\ngender, and the body alongside deeply\nresearched topics such as anthropology,\nmyth, symbolism, and art history.\nSchneemann was originally trained as a\npainter, and her early Abstract Expressionist\npaintings were an important influence\non her first performance works, scatological\nand gestural events she termed “Kinetic\nTheater,” which combined performance\nand installation and developed alongside\nFluxus and Happenings.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHer most famous of these works\nwas \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/35236\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eMeat Joy\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, which was choreographed\nfor nine performers—four men wearing\nonly briefs coupled with four bikini-clad\nwomen (including the artist) and a\n“serving maid” who introduced raw meat\nand other items into their orgiastic action.\nIt was first performed in 1964 at the\nFestival of Free Expression in Paris and\nthen at Dennison Hall in London and\nthe Judson Memorial Church in New\nYork. In Schneemann’s own words, “\u003cem\u003eMeat\nJoy\u003c/em\u003e has the character of an erotic rite:\nexcessive, indulgent, a celebration of flesh\nas material: raw fish, chickens, sausages,\nwet paint, transparent plastic, rope\nbrushes, paper scrap. Its propulsion is\ntoward the ecstatic—shifting and\nturning between tenderness, wildness,\nprecision, abandon: qualities which could\nat any moment be sensual, comic, joyous,\nrepellent.” Schneemann edited the\n16mm documentation of these three\nperformances into a distinct experimental\nfilm by incorporating pop music, slow motion,\nmontage editing, and poetic voice-over\nto create a dizzying and exuberant vision of\nthe experience. It remains an essential,\ngroundbreaking example of early feminist art.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500092112","wikidata_id":"Q299662","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:43:43.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-23T01:34:06.218-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/9689/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/9689/exhibitions"}}}}