Hannah Wilke

Infobox Artist
bgcolour =
name = Hannah Wilke


imagesize =
caption = Wilke in her work "S.O.S. - Starification Object Series" (1974)
birthname = Arlene Hannah Butter
birthdate = birth date|1940|3|7
location = New York City, New York
deathdate = death date and age|1993|1|28|1940|3|7
deathplace =
nationality = American
field = Sculpture, Photography, Body art
training = Stella Elkins Tyler School of Fine Art, Temple U, Philadelphia
movement =
works = "S.O.S. - Starification Object Series" (1974)
patrons =
awards = NEA Grants in sculpture and performance, Guggenheim Grant for sculpture

Hannah Wilke (born Arlene Hannah Butter, March 7, 1940—January 28, 1993)cite news|title=ART VIEW; An Artist's Chronicle Of a Death Foretold |last = Smith | first= Roberta |date=1994-01-30 |accessdate=2007-06-28 |url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E2DE1E30F933A05752C0A962958260] was an American painter, sculptor, and photographer.

Biography

Hannah Wilke was born in 1940 in New York City into a Jewish family.cite journal| journal=Art in America |url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n2_v85/ai_19114074 |month=February |year=1997 |volume = 85| issue = 2 |pages=pp. 92–93 | last = Princenthal |first = Nancy |accessdate=2007-07-07 |title=Mirror of Venus - photography, videos and performance art, Hannah Wilke, Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, New York]

Early work

Wilke first gained renown with her "vulval" terra-cotta sculptures in the 1960s.cite book|title=Pin-up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture |last = Buszek |first= Maria Elena |publisher = Duke University Press |isbn=0822337460 |year=2006 |pages=pp.291-294 |chapter = Our Bodies/Ourselves] Her sculptures are often mentioned as some of the first explicit vaginal imagery arising from the women's liberation movement.

Body art

In 1974, Wilke began work on her photographic body art piece "S.O.S - Starification Object Series" in which she merged her minimalist sculpture and her own body by creating tiny vulval sculptures out of chewing gum and sticking them to herself. She then photographed herself in various pin-up poses, providing a juxtaposition of glamour and something resembling tribal scarification. These poses exaggerate and satirize American cultural values of feminine beauty and fashion.cite journal |last = Wacks |first = Debra |title = Naked Truths: Hannah Wilke in Copenhagen |journal = Art Journal |url =http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0004-3249%28199922%2958%3A2%3C104%3ANTHWIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D |volume=58 |issue=2 |month=Summer |year=1999 |pages=pp. 104–106 |accessdate=2007-07-07 |doi = 10.2307/777953] She also performed this piece publicly, having audience members chew the gum for her before she sculpted them and placed them on her body. Wilke also used colored chewing gum as a medium for individual sculptures, using multiple pieces of gum to create a complex layering representing the vulva.cite journal |journal = X-Tra |volume = 6 |issue = 4 |title= Hannah Wilke |last = Dick |first = Leslie |url = http://x-traonline.org/past_articles.php?articleID=161 |accessdate=2007-07-07]

The title of "So Help Me Hannah" (1978) plays off of the Jewish mother stereotype and of Wilke's relationship with her mother.

Death and "Intra-Venus"

She died in 1993 from lymphoma. Her last work, "Intra-Venus" (1994), is a posthumously published photographic record of her physical transformation and deterioration resulting from her chemotherapy between December 17, 1991 and August 19, 1992.cite journal |url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0735-8393%28199601%2918%3A1%3C44%3AHWTIP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q |journal=Performing Arts Journal |last = Tierney |first = Hanne |volume=18 |issue=1 |month=January |year=1996 |pages=pp. 44–49 |title=Hannah Wilke: The Intra-Venus Photographs |accessdate=2007-07-07] The photographs, which were taken by her husband Donald Goddard, confront the viewer with personal images of Wilke progressing from midlife happiness to bald, damaged, and resigned. "Intra-Venus" mirrors her photo series "Portrait of the Artist with Her Mother, Selma Butter', which portrayed her mother's struggles with her cancer and "having literally incorporated her mother, illness and all."cite book|title = Body Art/Performing the Subject |last = Jones |first = Amelia |authorlink = Amelia Jones |pages = pp. 189 |chapter = The Rhetoric of the Pose: Hannah Wilke |publisher = University of Minnesota Press |location = Minneapolis |year=1998 |isbn = 0816627738] This was published partially in response to Wilke's feelings that clinical procedures hide patients as if dying was a "personal shame".cite journal|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n5_v82/ai_15406252 |accessdate=2007-07-07 |title=Hannah Wilke at Ronald Feldman - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions |last=Vine |first = Richard |journal=Art in America |month=May |year=1994]

Pose and Narcissism

In her work, Hannah Wilke often features herself as a posing glamour model. This has been interpreted as an artistic deconstruction of cultural modes of female vanity, narcissism and beauty.cite journal |last = Toepfer |first = Karl |url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0735-8393%28199609%2918%3A3%3C76%3ANATIPP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R |accessdate=2007-07-07 |volume=18 |issue = 3 |journal = Performing Arts Journal |title = Nudity and Textuality in Postmodern Performance |month = September |year=1996 |pages=pp. 82–83] Jones (1998), pp.151-152.] For her photo shoots, Wilke preferred male camera operators as they tended to focus more on her body rather than her face, feet, or hands.

Critical recognition

During her lifetime,American museums were hesitant to feature much of Wilke's work, possibly due its confrontational use of female sexuality and the fact that her work does not fit into a distinct genre or style.Her work is now included in permanent collections in The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and in European museums such as the Centre Pompidou, Paris. [cite website|title=Hannah Wilke Art in Selected Public Collections|url=http://www.hannahwilke.com/id12.html]

References