CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN (1939-2019) Gourds signed and dated 'C. Schneemann / '54' (lower left) oil on canvas 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in (40.0 x 40.0 cm) Painted in 1954 Footnotes: Provenance The Artist. Thence by decent to the present owner. Multidisciplinary artist Carolee Schneemann, now regarded as one of the most important artists of the 20th century, began her career as an abstract expressionist painter in the 1950s. She received a B.A. in poetry and philosophy from Bard College and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois before moving to New York City, where she immediately began to participate in the Fluxus Happenings and performances of the avant-garde artist collectives Living Theater and Judson Dance Theater, the latter of which she was a founding member. Schneemann started holding performances and shows out of her loft studio located on West 29th Street, steadily growing her reputation. While her work in film, photography, video, performance, sculpture and installation garnered her notoriety in the 1960s, Schneemann's abstract expressionist works were overshadowed at the time by the male artists who dominated the '60s New York art scene. Schneemann's work centers around the social constructions of the female body, sexuality, gender, and war. These themes are explored throughout her work in performances such as Meat Joy (1964), Up To and Including Her Limits (1973-76), and Interior Scroll (1975), which broke down taboos of the time and have since established Schneemann as a pioneering feminist artist. The present works are wonderful examples of her early abstract expressionist paintings, executed prior to her 1961 move to New York. After years of rejection by the art world, Schneemann has recently begun to receive recognition for her contributions to feminist theory and art history and her pioneering role in experimental art. Prior to her death, major retrospectives were held at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, and MoMA Ps1 in New York. In 2017, Schneemann was the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy. Recently her works have been included in a number of exhibitions such as body-house: Dialogues between Carolee Schneemann, Diego Bianchi and Márcia Falcão, Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil (2024); Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK (2022); After Carolee: Tender and Fierce/Carolee's Room, Artpace, San Antonio, TX, USA (2021). Currently, Schneemann's works are on view within the following exhibitions globally: CATS!, Museum am Rothenbaum (MARKK), Hamburg, Germany, December 5, 2025 - November 26, 2026; Women Artists from the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Connecticut, Westport, CT, November 13, 2025 - February 15, 2026; Sixties Surreal, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA, September 24, 2025 - January 19, 2026; The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970-2020, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, USA, November 9, 2024 - March 23, 2025; and Underground: American Avant-Garde Film in the 1960s, Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 13, 2024 - January 5, 2025. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing