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Charlotte Moorman

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Charlotte Moorman
Born
Madeline Charlotte Moorman

November 18, 1933
Little Rock, Arkansas
DiedNovember 8, 1991(1991-11-08)(aged 57)
New York City, New York
NationalityAmerican
Known forCellist,performance artist
SpouseFrank Pileggi

Madeline Charlotte Moorman(November 18, 1933 – November 8, 1991) was an American cellist,performance artist,and advocate foravant-garde music.[1][2]Referred to as the "Jeanne d'Arc of new music", she was the founder of theAnnual Avant Garde Festival of New Yorkand a frequent collaborator with Korean American artistNam June Paik.[3]

Early life[edit]

Madeline Charlotte Moorman was born on November 18, 1933, inLittle Rock,Arkansas.[4]At the age of ten she began to studycello.After her graduation fromLittle Rock High Schoolin 1951 she had a music scholarship to attendCentenary CollegeinShreveport,Louisiana.[5]She attained herB.A.inmusicin 1955.[5]She later attained aM.A.from theUniversity of Texas at Austinand continued on to postgraduate studies atThe Juilliard Schoolin 1957 where she received her master's degree in cello.[4]

Career[edit]

Following her studies atJuilliard,Moorman commenced a classicalconcert hallcareer as a cellist and joined theAmerican Symphony Orchestra.[6]From 1958-1963 she was also a member of Jacob Glick's Boccerini Players.[4]However, she was soon drawn into the more experimentalperformance artscene of the 1960s through her roommate and friendYoko Ono.[6]When asked during an interview how she had become interested in the avant-garde, Moorman said that one day she had grown [tired] of a Kabalevsky cello piece and someone had suggested that she try playing John Cage's "26 Minutes, 1.1499 Seconds for a String Player," which, among other things, requires the performer to prepare and eat mushrooms.

Moorman befriended and later performed with many well-known artists of the late 20th century, including Paik,Yoko Ono,John Cage,Wolf Vostell,Joseph Beuys,Joseph Byrd,Carolee Schneemann,andJim McWilliams.[7]This led to her loose involvement with theFluxusmovement of avant-garde performance artists. She later worked closely with many of its protagonists to interpret Enigma tic scores written in the open-ended spirit of Fluxus.[8]In 1966, Beuys, then associated with Fluxus, created his workInfiltration Homogen für Cello,a felt-coveredvioloncello,in her honor.[9]However, Moorman, like numerous other female artists including her close friend, Schneemann, was "blacklisted" by Fluxus-organizerGeorge Maciunasfor reasons that remain unclear.[10]

Annual Avant Garde Festival of New York[edit]

In 1963 Moorman founded theAnnual Avant Garde Festival of New York,[11]which presented the experimental music of the Fluxus group and Happenings alongside performance, kinetic art, and video art.[12]Despite the event's title the festival was not held annually. There were fifteen festivals from 1963 to 1980.[11]In addition, the festivals were often organized at unique locations such as Shea Stadium, Grand Central Station, the World Trade Center, and the Staten Island Ferry.[12]

As well as being a star performer of avant-garde pieces, she was an effective spokesperson and negotiator for advanced art, charming the bureaucracies of New York and other major cities into co-operating and providing facilities for controversial and challenging performances. The years of the Avant Garde Festival marked a period of unparalleled understanding and good relations between advanced artists and local authorities.[6]Friend and artistJim McWilliams' created numerous memorable pieces for her to perform at the New York Avant Garde Festivals, includingSky Kisswhich involved her hanging suspended from helium-filled weather balloons for the Sixth Avant Garde Festival, andThe Intravenous Feeding of Charlotte Moormanfor the 1973 edition.[13]

Collaborations with Nam June Paik[edit]

At the Second Avant Garde Festival, Moorman convincedKarlheinz Stockhausento restage his performance piece,Originale,using his original collaboratorNam June Paik.[14]This meeting began the decades-long collaboration between Moorman and Paik in which they fused sculpture, performance, music and art.[7]In addition, Paik created many works specifically for Moorman, includingTV Bra for Living Sculpture(1969) andTV-Cello(1971).[14]

On February 9, 1967, Moorman achieved widespread notoriety for her performance of Paik'sOpera Sextroniqueat the Film-Makers Cinematheque in New York City.[15]For this performance, Moorman was to perform movements on the cello in various states of nudity.[15]In the program for the performance, Paik wrote: "The purge of sex under the excuse of being 'serious' exactly undermines the so-called 'seriousness' of music as a classical art, ranking with literature and painting."[15]During the first movement, Moorman playedElegyby the French composerJules Massenetin the dark while wearing a bikini that had blinking lights.[15]For the second movement, she playedInternational LullabybyMax Mathewswhile wearing a black skirt, but while being topless, and was arrested mid-performance by three plainclothes police officers.[15]She was not able to return to perform the last two movements of the work.[15]As a result ofOpera Sextronique,Moorman was charged with indecent exposure, though her penalty was later suspended, and gained nationwide fame as the "topless cellist."[4]She was also fired from the American Symphony Orchestra.[11]For her court trial, Moorman and Paik restaged and filmed the first two movements ofOpera Sextroniquewith the filmmakerJud Yalkut,though the film was not permitted to be shown in court.[15]

For the 9th Annual New York Avant Garde Festival in 1972, Moorman performed Jim McWilliam’sA Water Cello for Charlotte Moormanat South Street Seaport, New York City.

Other collaborations with Paik focused more on humanizing technology and less on sexualizing music. For example, works likeTV Bra for Living Sculpture(1969), in which two small television sets were attached to Moorman's naked breasts while she played cello.[16]

Following Moorman's death, Paik made a film entitledTopless Cellist(1995) about Moorman's life and avant-garde performances.[17]

In 2001,Northwestern University Libraryacquired her archive. A portion of the archive's photographs, scores, props, and costumes were exhibited at theMary and Leigh Block Museum of Artand theGrey Art Galleryin 2016[18]and theMuseum der Moderne Salzburgin early 2017.[19]

Death[edit]

In the late 1970s she was diagnosed withbreast cancer.[20]She underwent amastectomyand further treatment, to continue performing through the 1980s in spite of pain and deteriorating health. She died ofcancerinNew York Cityon November 8, 1991, aged 57.[4]Following Moorman's death, her friend and fellow artist Carolee Schneemann created an online memorial for her.[21]

References[edit]

  1. ^l'Ouest, Courrier de (2019-11-12)."Saumurois. Charlotte Moorman" s'installe "pour quatre mois au château-musée de Montsoreau".Courrier de l'Ouest(in French).Retrieved2019-11-12.
  2. ^"Charlotte Moorman",Electronic Arts Intermix, Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  3. ^"Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik",Art Gallery of New South Wales, Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  4. ^abcdeCollins, Glenn."Charlotte Moorman, 58, is Dead; A Cellist in Avant-Garde Works",The New York Times,Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  5. ^abTarpley, John."Charlotte Moorman (1933-1991),The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  6. ^abcKaldor Public Art Projects."Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik".archive.artgallery.nsw.gov.au.
  7. ^ab"Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik 1976"Archived2014-05-24 at theWayback Machine,Kaldor Art Projects, Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  8. ^"Women in Flux",The Museum of Modern Art, Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  9. ^O'Dell, Kathy(Spring 1997). "Fluxus Feminus".TDR.41(1): 44.doi:10.2307/1146571.JSTOR1146571.
  10. ^abcNorman, Geraldine."Material Challenges",The Independent,Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  11. ^ab"4th and 7th Annual Avant Garde Festivals of New York",Electronic Arts Intermix, Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  12. ^McWilliams, Jim."The Intravenous Feeding of Charlotte Moorman (A Deep Sea Event for Cerise Cello)- Press Release".Electronic Arts Intermix.Retrieved1 February2014.
  13. ^abPiekut, Benjamin (2011).Experimentalism Otherwise: The New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits.University of California Press. p. 140.ISBN9780520948426.
  14. ^abcdefg"Opera Sextronique",Electronic Arts Intermix, Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  15. ^Walker Art Center."TV Bra for Living Sculpture".WalkerArt.org.
  16. ^"Topless Cellist",Electronic Arts Intermix, Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  17. ^"A Feast of Astonishments, Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s-1980s".Block Museum of Art.Retrieved19 February2021.
  18. ^"A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s–1980s".Museum der Moderne Salzburg.Retrieved19 February2021.[permanent dead link]
  19. ^Cummings, Robert."Charlotte Moorman",All Music, Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  20. ^Moorman memorial page.

Further reading[edit]

  • 24 Stunden.Beuys, Brock, Jährling, Klophaus, Moorman, Paik, Rahn, Schmit, Vostell. Hansen & Hansen, Itzehoe-Voßkate, 1965.
  • Vostell. Die Weinende, Homage to Charlotte Moorman.Galerie Inge Baecker, Köln 1992.
  • The World of Charlotte Moorman.Barbara Moore, Bound & Unbound, New York, 2000.
  • 24 Stunden - in Fotografien von Bodo Niederprüm.Das Wunderhorn, 2016,ISBN978-3-8842-3538-6.
  • Topless Cellist: The Improbable Life of Charlotte Moormanby Joan Rothfuss, MIT Press, 2017,ISBN978-0-2625-3358-4.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charlotte_Moorman&oldid=1218171110"