Rosemary Mayer
Rosemary Mayer (1943–2014), was an American visual artist who was closely associated with the feminist art movement and the conceptual art movement of the 1970s. She was a founding member of A.I.R. gallery, the first all-female artists cooperative gallery in the United States.[1]
Early life
Mayer was born and raised in Ridgewood, New York, and lived in New York City for most of her life.[2] She attended Saint Matthias grammar school in Ridgewood, NY, and Saint Saviour High School in Brooklyn.[3] She studied classics at St. Joseph's College and the University of Iowa and fine art at the School of Visual Arts and the Brooklyn Museum Art School.[2] She was fluent in Greek and Latin, and before studying fine art at SVA, according to Adrian Piper, she had refused Harvard University’s offer of a graduate fellowship to do a doctorate in the classics department.[4]
Career
Mayer worked in a variety of media including drawing, sculpture and installation.[2][5] Her early text-based work appeared frequently in 0 TO 9, a publication edited by her sister Bernadette Mayer and Vito Acconci between 1967-1969 which is considered "a groundbreaking mimeographed magazine...which brought together the era’s leading figures of experimental poetry and conceptual art," including artists Sol LeWitt, Adrian Piper, and Dan Graham.[6][7]
In 1972, Mayer was one of the women artists who co-founded A.I.R. gallery, at 97 Wooster Street in New York City.[1] She exhibited her large-scale fabric sculptures for the first time there in 1973 in a two-person solo presentation alongside artist Judith Bernstein, in a show which was reviewed by Roberta Smith in Artforum; in the review, Smith commented on the interplay between drawing and sculpture in Mayer's work.[8]
Artforum in Summer 1976 would publish a two-page feature on Mayer by Lawrence Alloway which included a reproduction of Galla Placidia, a work from that show.[9] The work Galla Placidia was also the cover of Alan Sondheim's book Individuals: Post-Movement Art in America (1976); Mayer also contributed the essay "Two Years, March 1973 to January 1975" which discusses her fabric sculptures, to that book which included writing and poetry by various contemporary artists.[10]
Mayer showed at Monique Knowlton gallery in 1976.[11] In the later 1970s her work grew more focused on installation and ephemeral projects, including installations incorporating weather balloons and snow in out-door projects. She was part of the show "Words as Images" at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in 1981, where she also gave a reading.[12][13] As a writer, she published Pontormo's Diary (1983), a translation of the diary of the Florentine artist Jacopo da Pontormo.[14] She said in a 2013 interview, “I was living in Post-Minimalism, a time after a time of clarity, and Pontormo was in a time after the clarity of the Renaissance.”[15] She also published criticism in Arts Magazine, Art in America, published writing on her work in Art-Rite, and kept a journal for most of her life.[16][17]
Mayer received grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Council on the Arts, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. She was also a professor of art at LaGuardia Community College, where she taught for twenty years.[2]
Personal life
Mayer was the sister of Bernadette Mayer, a poet, and writer associated with both the Language poets and the New York School. Rosemary Mayer was married to the artist Vito Acconci.[18] They separated in the late 1960s, and she lived for forty years in a Tribeca loft, where she hosted many elaborate dinner parties and cultivated an impressive indoor garden, primarily from avocado pits.[2][3] She had no children.[2]
Legacy
Mayer was the subject of a solo show at Southfirst Gallery in Brooklyn, New York — the first major presentation of her work in thirty years — which was reviewed in Artforum, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.[19] The show was curated by art historian Maika Pollack, the gallery’s founder, with Marie Warsh and Max Warsh—Mayer’s niece and nephew.[19][20][21] The exhibition included a presentation by art historian Gillian Sneed.[22] The show travelled to the University of Georgia's Lamar Dodd School of Art in fall of 2017.[23] An accompanying exhibition catalog titled, "Rosemary Mayer Beware All Definitions Selected Works 1966-1973" was published by the Lamar Dodd School of Art.[24]
A publication of her writing which documents a pivotal year in Mayer’s life and career, Excerpts from the 1971 Journal of Rosemary Mayer, edited by Marie Warsh, was published by Object Relations (Brooklyn, New York) in 2016.[17] In 2017, Sobercove Press published Temporary Monuments: Work by Rosemary Mayer, 1977-1982.[25] A project is currently underway to publish selected correspondence between Rosemary Mayer and her sister Bernadette Mayer in an edition of The Center for the Humanities journal, Lost & Found.[26]
Selected Exhibitions
Selected solo exhibitions
- 2016: Conceptual Works & Early Fabric Sculptures 1969-73, Southfirst, Brooklyn, NY
- 2011: Gilgamesh, LaGuardia Community College, NYC
- 2005: Illustrations for Beowulf, Resnick Gallery, Long Island University
- 1985: Pam Adler Gallery, New York, NY
- 1982: Moon Tent, The Hobbs House, Lansing, New York; Scarecrows, Snowpeople, Mayday, A & M Artworks, New York, NY
- 1981: Hours, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
- 1980: Interart Gallery, the Women’s Interart Center, Inc.
- 1979: Snowpeople, Lenox Library Garden, Lenox MA; Sculpture, Books, Works on Paper, 55 Mercer Street Gallery
- 1978: Balloon for a Birthday, 461 Park Ave. South, New York, NY; Some Days in April, Hartwick, NY
- 1977: Spell, Jamaica Farmer’s Market, Jamaica, NY
- 1976: Monique Knowlton Gallery, NYC
- 1973: A. I. R. Gallery, NYC
Selected group exhibitions
- 2016: On Empathy, Bridget Donahue, New York, NY
- 2012: Yesterday Amphoric, Regina Rex, Queens, NY
- 2008: The History Show, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
- 1997: Material Girls, 128 Gallery, New York, NY
- 1989: American Women Artists: The 20th Century, Knoxville Museum of Art
- 1986: Paper Now, Cleveland Museum of Art
- 1983: The White Wall Papers, Northern Illinois University
- 1980: The Times Square Show, NYC
- 1977: Six Women Artists, Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
- 1975: Group Indiscriminate, 112 Green Street Gallery, NYC
- 1973: Soft as Art, New York Cultural Center
Selected collections
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
- Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
Selected bibliography
- Alloway, Lawrence. “Rosemary Mayer.” Art Forum 14 (June 1976): 36
- Alloway, Laweence. “Review of Books: Artists’ Books.” Art in America 72, no. 6 (Summer 1984): 33-34.
- Connor, Maureen. “The Pleasure of Necessity: The Work of Rosemary Mayer”. Woman's Art Journal 6.2 (1985): 35–40.
- Kane, Hilarie. “Rosemary Mayer.” Interviews with Women in the Arts, Part 2. New York: School of the Visual Arts. Joyce Kozloff ed. (1976): 17-18.
- Lubell, Ellen. “Soft Art.” Soho Weekly News, (December 22, 1977): 27.
- Mayer, Rosemary. Book: 41 Fabric Swatches. New York: 0-9 Press, 1969.
- Mayer, Rosemary. "Gallery Review ‘Performance & Experience’: " Arts Magazine 47, no. 3 (Dec.-Jan. 1973):33-36.
- Mayer, Rosemary. Surroundings. Art-Rite Publishing, 1977.
- Mayer, Rosemary. "A Moon Tent." White Walls 8 (Summer 1983):76-81.
- Mayer, Rosemary. Pontormo’s Diary. New York: Out of London Press, 1979.
- Sondheim, Alan, ed. Individuals: Post-Movement Art in America. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1977.
References
- ^ a b "HISTORY". A.I.R. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ a b c d e f "ROSEMARY MAYER's Obituary on New York Times". New York Times. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ a b Mayer, Bernadette. "Bernadette Mayer on Rosemary Mayer (1943–2014)". artforum.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ Piper, Adrian. "Adrian Piper on Rosemary Mayer (1943–2014)". artforum.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ "Southfirst gallery". www.southfirst.org. October 20, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ "Ugly Duckling Presse". www.uglyducklingpresse.org. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
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(help) - ^ "Bernadette Mayer, Vito Acconci, and 0 To 9 Magazine". Field Guide. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ Smith, Roberta (1973). ""Rosemary Mayer at A.I.R.," in Artforum". Artforum. September 1973 Vol. XII [12].
- ^ "Summer 1976". artforum.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ Abish, Walter; Anderson, Laurie; Askevold, David; Acconci, Vito; Horvitz, Robert; Kitchel, Nancy Wilson; Lucier, Alvin; Mayer, Bernadette; Piper, Adrian (1977-01-17). Sondheim, Alan (ed.). Individuals: Post-Movement Art in America (1st ed.). E. P. Dutton & Co. ISBN 9780525474289.
- ^ London, ArtFacts.Net Ltd. ,. "Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York City, NY - Overview". www.artfacts.net. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Society, The Renaissance. "Words as Images | Exhibitions | The Renaissance Society". www.renaissancesociety.org. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ Society, The Renaissance. "Rosemary Mayer | Events: Reading | The Renaissance Society". www.renaissancesociety.org. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ Mayer, Rosemary (1983-03-01). Pontormo's Diary (1st ed.). Union Square Art Book. ISBN 9780915570171.
- ^ "Diaries of an Artist The Art and Writing of Rosemary Mayer". brooklynrail.org. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ Mayer, Rosemary (1983-03-01). introduction to Pontormo's Diary (1st ed.). Union Square Art Book. ISBN 9780915570171.
- ^ a b "Diaries of an Artist The Art and Writing of Rosemary Mayer". brooklynrail.org. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ "Vito Acconci". Wikipedia. 2017-03-09.
- ^ a b Wyma, Chloe. "Rosemary Mayer at Southfirst". artforum.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ Heinrich, Martha Schwendener, Roberta Smith, Will; Rosenberg, Karen (2016-11-17). "What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Rosemary Mayer". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ "SOUTHFIRST". southfirst.org. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ "Beware All Definitions". Lamar Dodd School of Art. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
- ^ Geha, Katie; Warsh, Marie. Rosemary Mayer Beware All Definitions. Athens, GA: Lamar Dodd School of Art. ISBN 9781532346125.
- ^ Griffith, Phillip (2018-10-04). "Hyperallergic". Hyper Allergic. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
- ^ "2018-2019 Lost & Found Grants and Fellowships". The Center for the Humanities. 2018-08-14.
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