Marjorie Strider
Encyclopedia
Marjorie Strider is an American
painter
, sculptor and performance artist best known for her three-dimensional paintings and site-specific soft sculpture
installations.
, Strider studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute
before moving to New York City
in the early 1960s. Strider's three-dimensional paintings of beach girls with "built out" curves were prominently featured in the Pace Gallery
's 1964 "International Girlie Show" alongside other "pin-up"-inspired Pop art
by Rosalyn Drexler
, Roy Lichtenstein
, Andy Warhol
, and Tom Wesselman. Her comically pornographic Woman with Radish was made into the banner image for the show, one of the first successful exhibitions of the then-new gallery. Her bold figural work from this era aimed to subvert sexist images of women in popular culture by turning objectified female bodies into menacing forms that literally got "in your face." Strider had two subsequent solo exhibitions at the Pace Gallery
in 1965 and 1966 where she continued to show her voluminous paintings of bikini-clad girls as well as 3-D renderings of vegetables, fruits, flowers, clouds and other natural phenomena.
Strider became a core member of the 1960s avant-garde
. She performed in Happenings organized by Allan Kaprow
, Claes Oldenburg
and others. In 1969 she organized with Hannah Weiner
and John Perreault the first Street Work, an informal public art event. Twenty artists participated including Vito Acconci
, Gregory Battcock and Arakawa. Strider's contribution was thirty empty picture frames which she hung in random locations in midtown
Manhattan
in the hopes of getting pedestrians to look at their environment differently. Strider married Michael Kirby, a contemporary artist and writer who published the first book on Happenings in 1965.
Around this time Strider made chocolate casts of Patty Oldenburg's breasts for Claes
's birthday (a plaster version was later acquired by Sol LeWitt
). Perhaps it was her intimate friendship with the Oldenburgs that led Strider to redirect her artistic focus from hard sculptural paintings to soft sculpture
in the 1970s. She made site-specific installations of unbridled polyurethane
foam that tumbled out of windows (Building Work 1976, PS1) or oozed down a spiral staircase (Blue Sky 1976, Clocktower Gallery). At times her renegade pours incorporated domestic objects (brooms, groceries, teapots), while others remained totally amorphous. These works are similar in style and intent to Lynda Benglis
' floor paintings and soft sculpture
s of the same era.
From 1982 to 1985, a retrospective of her work toured museums and universities across the United States
. Venues included: SculptureCenter
, New York; Gibbes Museum of Art
, Charleston, South Carolina; Joslyn Art Museum
, Omaha, Nebraska; Museum of Art, University of Arizona, Tucson; and the McNay Art Museum
, San Antonio, Texas. In the 1990s, she began to make paintings with tactile surfaces that were more Abstract Expressionist than Pop
. In 2009 she revisited her original girlie theme, painting new examples which she exhibited at the Bridge Gallery, New York. Strider continues to live and work in New York City.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, sculptor and performance artist best known for her three-dimensional paintings and site-specific soft sculpture
Soft sculpture
Soft sculpture is a type of sculpture made using cloth, foam rubber, plastic, paper, fibers and similar material that are supple and nonrigid....
installations.
Biography
Born in 1934 in Guthrie, OklahomaGuthrie, Oklahoma
Guthrie is a city in and the county seat of Logan County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex. The population was 9,925 at the 2000 census.Guthrie was the territorial and later the first state capital for Oklahoma...
, Strider studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....
before moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the early 1960s. Strider's three-dimensional paintings of beach girls with "built out" curves were prominently featured in the Pace Gallery
Pace Gallery
The Pace Gallery is a New York City-based exhibition space. It was founded in 1960 in Boston by Arne Glimcher.-PaceWildenstein:From 1993 until April 1, 2010, the gallery became "PaceWildenstein," a joint business venture between the Pace Gallery and Wildenstein & Co....
's 1964 "International Girlie Show" alongside other "pin-up"-inspired Pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
by Rosalyn Drexler
Rosalyn Drexler
Rosalyn Drexler is a Pop artist, novelist, Obie Award-winning playwright, and Emmy Award-winning screenwriter. She is represented by Pace Gallery.-Early life:...
, Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, and Tom Wesselman. Her comically pornographic Woman with Radish was made into the banner image for the show, one of the first successful exhibitions of the then-new gallery. Her bold figural work from this era aimed to subvert sexist images of women in popular culture by turning objectified female bodies into menacing forms that literally got "in your face." Strider had two subsequent solo exhibitions at the Pace Gallery
Pace Gallery
The Pace Gallery is a New York City-based exhibition space. It was founded in 1960 in Boston by Arne Glimcher.-PaceWildenstein:From 1993 until April 1, 2010, the gallery became "PaceWildenstein," a joint business venture between the Pace Gallery and Wildenstein & Co....
in 1965 and 1966 where she continued to show her voluminous paintings of bikini-clad girls as well as 3-D renderings of vegetables, fruits, flowers, clouds and other natural phenomena.
Strider became a core member of the 1960s avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
. She performed in Happenings organized by Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. His Happenings - some 200 of them - evolved over the years...
, Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
and others. In 1969 she organized with Hannah Weiner
Hannah Weiner
Hannah Adelle Weiner was an American poet who is often grouped with the Language poets because of the prominent place she assumed in the poetics of that group.- Early life and writings :...
and John Perreault the first Street Work, an informal public art event. Twenty artists participated including Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
, Gregory Battcock and Arakawa. Strider's contribution was thirty empty picture frames which she hung in random locations in midtown
Midtown
-In cities:Nepal*Midtown, Kathmandu, NepalUnited States*Midtown, Agoura Hills, California*Midtown Atlanta, Georgia**Midtown , passenger rail station near this area*Midtown Columbus, Georgia*Midtown, Detroit, Michigan...
Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in the hopes of getting pedestrians to look at their environment differently. Strider married Michael Kirby, a contemporary artist and writer who published the first book on Happenings in 1965.
Around this time Strider made chocolate casts of Patty Oldenburg's breasts for Claes
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
's birthday (a plaster version was later acquired by Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
). Perhaps it was her intimate friendship with the Oldenburgs that led Strider to redirect her artistic focus from hard sculptural paintings to soft sculpture
Soft sculpture
Soft sculpture is a type of sculpture made using cloth, foam rubber, plastic, paper, fibers and similar material that are supple and nonrigid....
in the 1970s. She made site-specific installations of unbridled polyurethane
Polyurethane
A polyurethane is any polymer composed of a chain of organic units joined by carbamate links. Polyurethane polymers are formed through step-growth polymerization, by reacting a monomer with another monomer in the presence of a catalyst.Polyurethanes are...
foam that tumbled out of windows (Building Work 1976, PS1) or oozed down a spiral staircase (Blue Sky 1976, Clocktower Gallery). At times her renegade pours incorporated domestic objects (brooms, groceries, teapots), while others remained totally amorphous. These works are similar in style and intent to Lynda Benglis
Lynda Benglis
Lynda Benglis is an American sculptor known for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. After earning a BFA from Newcomb College in 1964, Benglis moved to New York, where she lives and works today...
' floor paintings and soft sculpture
Soft sculpture
Soft sculpture is a type of sculpture made using cloth, foam rubber, plastic, paper, fibers and similar material that are supple and nonrigid....
s of the same era.
From 1982 to 1985, a retrospective of her work toured museums and universities across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Venues included: SculptureCenter
SculptureCenter
SculptureCenter is a contemporary art museum that is located in Long Island City in the borough of Queens in New York City.-Mission:Founded by artists in 1928, SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit arts institution dedicated to experimental and innovative developments in contemporary sculpture...
, New York; Gibbes Museum of Art
Gibbes Museum of Art
The Gibbes Museum of Art is an art museum in Charleston, South Carolina. Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858, the museum moved into a new Beaux Arts building at 135 Meeting Street in 1905...
, Charleston, South Carolina; Joslyn Art Museum
Joslyn Art Museum
The Joslyn Art Museum is the principal fine arts museum in the state of Nebraska, United States of America. Located in Omaha, it is the only museum in the state with a comprehensive permanent collection...
, Omaha, Nebraska; Museum of Art, University of Arizona, Tucson; and the McNay Art Museum
McNay Art Museum
The McNay Art Museum, founded in 1950 in San Antonio, is the first modern art museum in the State of Texas. The museum was created by Marion Koogler McNay's original bequest of most of her fortune, her important art collection and her 24-room Spanish Colonial Revival-style mansion that sits on ...
, San Antonio, Texas. In the 1990s, she began to make paintings with tactile surfaces that were more Abstract Expressionist than Pop
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
. In 2009 she revisited her original girlie theme, painting new examples which she exhibited at the Bridge Gallery, New York. Strider continues to live and work in New York City.
Public collections
- Albright-Knox Art GalleryAlbright-Knox Art GalleryThe Albright-Knox Art Gallery is an art museum located in Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York. The gallery is a major showplace for modern art and contemporary art. It is located directly across the street from Buffalo State College.-History:...
, Buffalo New York - Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
- Boca Raton Museum of ArtBoca Raton Museum of ArtThe Boca Raton Museum of Art is located at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, Florida in Mizner Park. It houses works of art by a number of the great masters.-About:...
, Boca Raton, Florida - CUNY Graduate CenterCUNY Graduate CenterThe Graduate Center of the City University of New York brings together graduate education, advanced research, and public programming to midtown Manhattan hosting 4,600 students, 33 doctoral programs, 7 master's programs, and 30 research centers and institutes...
, New York - University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
- Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts
- Des Moines Art CenterDes Moines Art CenterThe Des Moines Art Center is an art museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. It was established in 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa.-Description:...
, Des Moines, Iowa - First National Bank, Seattle, Washington
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenThe Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
, Washington, D.C. - Indianapolis Museum of ArtIndianapolis Museum of ArtThe Indianapolis Museum of Art is an encyclopedic art museum located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The museum, which underwent a $74 million expansion in 2005, is located on a campus on the near northwest area outside downtown Indianapolis, northwest of Crown Hill Cemetery.The...
, Indianapolis, Indiana - McNay Art MuseumMcNay Art MuseumThe McNay Art Museum, founded in 1950 in San Antonio, is the first modern art museum in the State of Texas. The museum was created by Marion Koogler McNay's original bequest of most of her fortune, her important art collection and her 24-room Spanish Colonial Revival-style mansion that sits on ...
, San Antonio, Texas - New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, New York - Newark MuseumNewark MuseumThe Newark Museum is the largest museum in New Jersey, USA. It holds fine collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the ancient world...
, Newark, New Jersey - New Mexico Museum of ArtNew Mexico Museum of ArtThe New Mexico Museum of Art , the oldest art museum in the state of New Mexico, is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe...
, Santa Fe, New Mexico - Storm King Art CenterStorm King Art CenterThe Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York is an open air museum which has extended the concept of a "sculpture garden" to become a "sculpture landscape." Founded in 1960 by Ralph E. Ogden as a museum for Hudson Valley painters, it soon expanded into a major sculpture venue with the...
, Mountainville, New York - Temple UniversityTemple UniversityTemple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Vero Beach Museum of ArtVero Beach Museum of ArtThe Vero Beach Museum of Art is located at 3001 River Park Drive, Vero Beach, Florida. It houses regional, state and national art exhibits and includes a sculpture garden. The Vero Beach Museum of Art is the principal cultural arts facility of its kind on Florida’s Treasure Coast...
, Vero Beach, Florida - Wadsworth AtheneumWadsworth AtheneumThe Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the United States, with significant holdings of French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces and contemporary works, as well as extensive holdings in early American furniture and...
, Hartford, Connecticut
Selected Exhibitions
- 2011 Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, "Marjorie Strider" [solo exhibition] (catalogue)
- 2010 University of the Arts, Philadelphia, "Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968" [traveling exhibition] (catalogue)
- 1999 Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase (catalogue)
- 1995 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, “Recent Paintings”
- 1988-90 Finn Square, New York, “Sunflower Plaza,” outdoor installation
- 1984 Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, “Wall Sculpture and Drawings”
- 1982 Myers Fine Art Gallery, SUNY Plattsburgh, "Marjorie Strider: 10 Years, 1970-1980" [traveling exhibition through 1985] (catalogue)
- 1976 The Clocktower, New York
- 1976 PS1, New York
- 1974 Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, “Strider: Sculpture and Drawings 1972-1974" (brochure)
- 1966 Pace GalleryPace GalleryThe Pace Gallery is a New York City-based exhibition space. It was founded in 1960 in Boston by Arne Glimcher.-PaceWildenstein:From 1993 until April 1, 2010, the gallery became "PaceWildenstein," a joint business venture between the Pace Gallery and Wildenstein & Co....
, New York - 1965 Pace GalleryPace GalleryThe Pace Gallery is a New York City-based exhibition space. It was founded in 1960 in Boston by Arne Glimcher.-PaceWildenstein:From 1993 until April 1, 2010, the gallery became "PaceWildenstein," a joint business venture between the Pace Gallery and Wildenstein & Co....
, New York - 1964 Pace GalleryPace GalleryThe Pace Gallery is a New York City-based exhibition space. It was founded in 1960 in Boston by Arne Glimcher.-PaceWildenstein:From 1993 until April 1, 2010, the gallery became "PaceWildenstein," a joint business venture between the Pace Gallery and Wildenstein & Co....
, New York, "First International Girlie Exhibit"
Selected Bibliography
- Alloway, Lawrence. Great Drawings of All Time: The Twentieth Century, Volume 2, New York: Shorewood/Talisman, 1981.
- Battock, Gregory., ed. Super Realism: A Critical Anthology, New York: Dutton, 1975
- Dewey, Diane. "Marjorie Strider, Pioneering ’60’s Artist Remains a Creative Force: Influential Postmodernist Continues to Speak through her Strong Contemporary Style," Artes Magazine, November 24, 2009
- Hess, Thomas B. and Elizabeth C. Baker, eds. Art and Sexual Politics. New York: MacMillan
- Hess and Linda Nochlin, eds. Woman as Sex Object. New York: Newsweek, Inc., 1972
- Hunter, Sam. American Art of the 20th Century. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1972
- Johnston, Jill. Marmalade Me. New York: Dutton, 1971
- Jones, V. W. Contemporary American Women Sculptors. Phoenix: Onyx Press, 1983
- Kirby, Michael. The Art of Time. New York: Dutton, 1969
- Lippard, Lucy. Pop Art. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966
- Lippard. From the Center, feminist essays on women’s art. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1976
- Lippard. Six Years: the dematerialization of the art object. New York: Praeger, 1973
- Lippard. The Pink Glass Swan, 1995.
- Pincus-Witten, Robert. Postminimalism. New York: Out of London Press, 1977
- Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer. American Women Sculptors, A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1991
- Sachs, Sid and Kalliopi Minioudaki, eds. Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968. Philadelphia, PA: University of the Arts, Philadelphia, 2010.
- Semmel, Joan. A New Eros. New York: Hacker Art Books, 1977
- Sewall-Ruskin, Yvonne. High On Rebellion. New York: Thunders Mouth Press, 1998
- Yau, John. Marjorie Strider. New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries, 2011