Monthly Archives: March 2010

Lucy Lippard Receives Curatorial Award

The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) is presenting its thirteenth annual Award for Curatorial Excellence to curator, writer, and activist Lucy Lippard. For more than four decades, Lippard’s insightful, timely, and at times radical curatorial and critical endeavors have made a profound and resonant impact on our understanding of the art of our time. From her pioneering early support of artists such as Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, and Lawrence Weiner, and her advocacy of feminist art, to her groundbreaking work as a writer and critic, Lippard’s contributions to the field of contemporary art are countless.

Lucy Lippard is a curator, writer, activist, and author of 20 books on contemporary art and cultural criticism, including one novel. She has curated some 50 exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, and her arts activities have extended into performances, comics, and street theater. For 30 years she has worked with artists’ groups such as the Artworkers’ Coalition, Ad Hoc Women Artists, Artists Meeting for Cultural Change, Alliance for Cultural Democracy (for which she served as coeditor of “How to ’92: Model Actions for a Post-Columbian World”), and WAC (Women’s Action Coalition). She was a cofounder of Printed Matter; The Heresies Collective and its journal; PADD (Political Art Documentation/Distribution) and its journal Upfront; and Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America. She continues to write and lecture frequently at museums and universities. She has served as a member of the Santa Fe County Open Land and Trails Planning and Advisory Committee; is a member of the Galisteo Community Planning Committee; edits her community newsletter El Puente de Galisteo; and is on the Santa Fe Railyard Park Design Committee with the Trust for Public Land.
http://www.bard.edu/ccs

Real Lives of Women Artists

The Symposium “Real Lives of Women Artists” took place at Smith College, February 26-27, 2010. Speakers included Lucy Lippard, Susan Hiller, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and other Smith alumnae artists such as Rebecca Morris and Casey Ruble. (A list of participants and other information: http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/symposium/speakers.php)

Lucy Lippard (Smith, ’58) spoke about her recent curatorial projects which include “Weather Report” a Denver-area show about climate change. Lippard has kept her activist edge–she stated that collectives are the future of art in America and reminded us that there is no such thing as a “Post-Feminist” world since the work of feminism has not been accomplished.
http://cees.colorado.edu/Weather_Report.htm

Susan Hiller, who lives and works in England, emphasized the need to find the most appropriate media for one’s ideas. She has worked mainly in sound installation and film: http://www.susanhiller.org/Info/publications2.html

Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ opening remark was: “I became an artist because I wanted to be free.”  She described in vivid and humorous detail her struggles as a mother, wife, and artist, especially her grueling, early-morning schedule during the relational work “Touch Sanitation” (pictured).  Ukeles has since 1977 been artist in residence (unsalaried) at the New York City Department of Sanitation and is currently undertaking reclamation of the former Fresh Kills Landfill site in New York City.

http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/home_frame.html

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/panyc/ukeles.shtml

Pictured: Mierle Laderman Ukeles, “Touch Sanitation” 1977, image courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts