Digital Exhibition
Kathleen Wentrack
Mary Beth Edelson: Come Dressed As Your Favorite Artist & Healing Ritual for Carolee Schneemann, December 17, 1987, 110 Mercer Street
Kathleen Wentrack
Oct 24, 2019
Come Dressed as Your Favorite Artist
Copyright held by the Estate of Mary Beth Edelson; preserved through a partnership with The Feminist Institute. See record
This image documents a dinner and costume party honoring Louise Bourgeois hosted by Mary Beth Edelson and Ana Mendieta at Mary Beth’s loft in Soho on the 14th of March 1979. Mendieta was introduced to many women artists at this gathering. Guests included: Louise Bourgeois, Ana Mendieta, Mary Beth Edelson, Michelle Stuart, Joyce Kozloff, Hannah Wilke, Judith Bernstein, Anne Sharp, Susan Copper, Edit D'Ak, Barbara Moore, Patricia Hamilton, Phyllis Krim, Barbara Zucker, Poppy Johnson, Marcia Resnick, and Gloria MacDonald.
After Mendieta’s untimely death in 1985, Edelson made a silkscreen homage to her friend.
Healing Ritual for Carolee Schneemann, December 17, 1987, 110 Mercer Street
Copyright held by the Estate of Mary Beth Edelson; preserved through a partnership with The Feminist Institute. See record
Indicative of Edelson’s close connection with other
feminist artists and her performative practices, she created a performance
ritual for Carolee Schneemann in her 110 Mercer Street loft on December 17,
1987. “Healing Ritual for Carolee Schneemann (or Summer Wounds Healed
in Winter)” engaged five others that included Gloria Orenstein, Clive
Philpot, Elinor Gadon, Hank Gile, and Maura Sheehan. The photograph documents
the ritual for which Edelson made an artist’s book that outlines the healing
process for her friend, five pages of which are documented below.
Related items from the archive
Dinner in honor of Louise Bourgeois and Ana Mendieta held by Mary Beth Edelson
Healing Ritual for Carolee Schneemann
"Healing Ritual for Carolee Schneeman Artists' Book"
Written by Dr. Kathleen Wentrack
© 2019 Kathleen Wentrack
Kathleen Wentrack, PhD, is a Professor of Art History at The City University of New York, Queensborough CC and the editor of the forthcoming book “Collaboration, Empowerment, Change: Women’s Art Collectives.” She recently published “1970s Feminist Practice as Heterotopian: The Stichting Vrouwen in de Beeldende Kunst and the Schule für kreativen Feminismus,” in “All Women Art Spaces in the Long 1970s” edited by Agata Jakubowska and Katy Deepwell (Liverpool University Press, 2018). She is a contributing editor to Art History Teaching Resources and Art History Pedagogy and Practice and a co-coordinator of The Feminist Art Project in New York City.
Produced by Erica Galluscio
Photography of studio space provided by Kolin Mendez Photography
Accola Griefen Fine Art exhibition photos courtesy of Accola Griefen Fine Art: Rob van Erve
Images of “Goddess Tribe” installation courtesy of David Lewis New York
Select Bibliography
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Edelson, Mary Beth. The Art of Mary Beth Edelson. New York: Seven Cycles, 2002.
Edelson, Mary Beth. Firsthand: Photographs by Mary Beth Edelson, 1973-1993 and Shooter Series. Essay by Jan Avgikos, “No Reverse Gear.” Mary Beth Edelson: New York, 1993.
Edelson, Mary Beth. Interview with Kathleen Wentrack. New York, 12 September 2008.
Edelson, Mary Beth. “Male Grazing: An Open Letter to Thomas McEvilley.” In: Feminism-Art-Theory: An Anthology, 1968-2000.” Ed. Hilary Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001, 592-94. First published as “Objections of a ‘Goddess Artist:’ An open Letter to Thomas McEvilley.” New Art Examiner 16, No. 8 (April 1989): 34-38.
Edelson, Mary Beth. “Pilgrimage/See for Yourself: A Journey to a Neolithic Goddess Cave, 1977. Grapceva, Hvar Island Yugoslavia.” Heresies: A Feminist Publication of Art and Politics #5, Spring 1978: 96-99.
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