Eleanor Antin A Retrospective

Eleanor Antin (1935, New York) is considered a pioneer representative of conceptual, feminist art. Her multimedia practice – spanning photography, film and video, performance, text, installation and drawing – explores questions of identity and politics through stories that intertwine personal and historical. Fictional alter egos, such as The King, The Ballerina or The Nurse appear in many projects in various forms, subverting the forces behind societal roles and historical narratives. The iconic photographic series 100 Boots(1971–73) – a road movie without people – is an example of the witty, ironic and political awareness that characterises her work. Carving: A Traditional Sculpture (1972) is an early feminist examination of the female body through taxonomy systems, often driven by patriarchal and colonial forces. Antin’s practice has been groundbreaking for subsequent generations of artists working with performance and self-representation.

This first major retrospective since 1999 – and the first ever in Europe – presents Antin’s œuvre in full breadth. The exhibition highlights the continued relevance and influence of her work from the late 1960s till today, when issues of power imbalance and collective and individual representation have taken on renewed urgency.

Biography

New Yorker artist Eleanor Antin (b. 1935) is a key figure emerging from the Conceptual art movements of the 1970s and she remains a leading feminist figure today. Her ground-breaking practice spans five decades and has covered themes surrounding identity, gender, autobiography, class and social structures. Antin’s multi-disciplinary approach includes installation, painting, drawing, writing and most notably photo- graphy and performance.

Over the last fifty years Antin has performed and exhibited her work internationally. She has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin’s ‘Selves’., ICA, Boston, MA (2014); Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes, San Diego Art Museum, San Diego, CA (2008); Eleanor Antin: Real Time Streaming, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK and Mead Gallery, Warwick, UK (2001); Eleanor Antin Retrospective, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (1999); and Eleanor Antin: Selections from the Angel of Mercy., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1997). In 1975, her seminal exhibition 100 Boots debuted at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Most recently, Antin’s work has been featured in notable institutional group exhibitions such as Chrysalis: The Butterfly Dream exhibition, Centre D’art Contemporain, Geneva (2023); Mapping an Art World, MOCA, Los Angeles (2023) and The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2023). As a performance artist, she has appeared in venues all around the world, including the 37th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, Italy (2005) and The Sydney Opera House, Australia (2002). Her work is included in public collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago; the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Jewish Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, amongst others.

In 2019 she revisited and recreated one of her most important early works, CARVING: A Traditional Sculpture, for the exhibition Time’s Arrow at LACMA and the Art Institute of Chicago.