Barbara Smith

1931 (age 62)

Pasadena, California , United States

In 1965, after raising three children, she returned to study at Chouinard Art Institute, making The Black Glass Paintings, a series of primarily black surfaces under glass. During her time at University of California Irvine, Smith and other artists such as Nancy Buchanan, and Chris Burden, founded F-Space, the experimental art gallery where she launched her career as a performance artist (it was also where Burden’s notorious “Shoot” (1971) was staged). Titles like “Broken Heart,” “Bond,” “Undies” and “Do Not Touch” suggest the personal nature of her subject matter. She began to explore themes of, “the body, food, nurturing, female desire, heterosexual relationships, sexuality, religion, spiritual transformation, love, and death." Smith is best known for her performance work in the late 1960s that was at the forefront of feminist, body, and performance art Cardinal performances by Smith include: “Ritual Meal” (1969), a dinner party where guests dressed in scrubs and ate with surgical instruments with footage of the space, nudes, and surgery played overhead. “Celebration of the Holy Squash” (1971), where Smith created an entire religion out of a vegetable husk, left over from a communal meal. “Feed Maine,” (1973) where Smith sat naked on a mattress in a bathroom during a performance festival with a selection of "food, wine, marijuana, and massage oil," while a looped recording played "feed me". “Birthdaze” (1981), performed on Smith"s 50th birthday, she enacted her life story in relation to the male avant-garde. And “The 21st Century Odyssey” (1991–1993), a collaboration between herself and her partner at the time, University of California, Los Angeles professor and scientist Roy Walford, a Biospherian. During the performance she traveled the world and transmitted her performances back to the Biosphere 2, where Walford lived at the time, and the Biospherians responded. A retrospective exhibition of her work, "The 21st Century Odyssey Participant II: The Performances of Barbara T. Smith" was shown at the Pomona College Museum of Art in 2005, and later traveled to the Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University. Her "Trunk Piece," along with video footage from past performances, were a part of the Orange County Museum of Art"s permanent collection exhibition "Art Since the 1960s: California Experiments" (July 15, 2007 – September 14, 2008). Her "Field Piece" (1968–1972) was the central work of a show at The Box gallery in Los Angeles (November 17, 2007 – January 5, 2008).

Barbara Smith

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painter performance artist

Education

She studied painting, art history and religion as an undergraduate at Pomona College, graduating in 1953. She received her Master of Fine Arts from University of California, Irvine in 1971.

Career

In 1965, after raising three children, she returned to study at Chouinard Art Institute, making The Black Glass Paintings, a series of primarily black surfaces under glass. During her time at University of California Irvine, Smith and other artists such as Nancy Buchanan, and Chris Burden, founded F-Space, the experimental art gallery where she launched her career as a performance artist (it was also where Burden’s notorious “Shoot” (1971) was staged). Titles like “Broken Heart,” “Bond,” “Undies” and “Do Not Touch” suggest the personal nature of her subject matter.

She began to explore themes of, “the body, food, nurturing, female desire, heterosexual relationships, sexuality, religion, spiritual transformation, love, and death."

Smith is best known for her performance work in the late 1960s that was at the forefront of feminist, body, and performance art

Cardinal performances by Smith include: “Ritual Meal” (1969), a dinner party where guests dressed in scrubs and ate with surgical instruments with footage of the space, nudes, and surgery played overhead. “Celebration of the Holy Squash” (1971), where Smith created an entire religion out of a vegetable husk, left over from a communal meal.

“Feed Maine,” (1973) where Smith sat naked on a mattress in a bathroom during a performance festival with a selection of "food, wine, marijuana, and massage oil," while a looped recording played "feed me". “Birthdaze” (1981), performed on Smith"s 50th birthday, she enacted her life story in relation to the male avant-garde.

And “The 21st Century Odyssey” (1991–1993), a collaboration between herself and her partner at the time, University of California, Los Angeles professor and scientist Roy Walford, a Biospherian.

During the performance she traveled the world and transmitted her performances back to the Biosphere 2, where Walford lived at the time, and the Biospherians responded. A retrospective exhibition of her work, "The 21st Century Odyssey Participant II: The Performances of Barbara T. Smith" was shown at the Pomona College Museum of Art in 2005, and later traveled to the Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University. Her "Trunk Piece," along with video footage from past performances, were a part of the Orange County Museum of Art"s permanent collection exhibition "Art Since the 1960s: California Experiments" (July 15, 2007 – September 14, 2008).

Her "Field Piece" (1968–1972) was the central work of a show at The Box gallery in Los Angeles (November 17, 2007 – January 5, 2008).

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