Barbara Kasten (born 1936) is an American artist from Chicago Illinois. Her work involves the use of abstract video and photograph projections.

Schooling and career

Kasten trained as a painter and textile artist at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

(BFA), the

California College of Arts & Crafts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

(MFA) with

Trude Guermonprez Trude Guermonprez, born Gertrud Emilie Jalowetz (1910 1976), was a German-born American textile artist, designer and educator, known for her tapestry landscapes. Her Bauhaus-influenced disciplined abstraction for hand woven textiles greatly contr ...

, and a

Fulbright-Hays Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

at the

University of Fine Arts in Poznań Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts Poznan Poznań (in Polish: ''Uniwersytet Artystyczny im. Magdaleny Abakanowicz w Poznaniu'') is one of the major fine-art academies in Poland. It was founded in 1919 as the State School of Decorative ...

with

Magdalena Abakanowicz Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz-Kosmowska (20 June 1930 – 20 April 2017) was a Polish sculptor and fiber artist. She was known for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium and her outdoor installations. She is widely regarded as one of Poland ...

. She was influenced by the Bauhaus movement and

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the i ...

. After school, she turned to photography to encompass her interdisciplinary work, beginning in 1973 with the commercial process of

diazotype Whiteprint describes a document reproduction produced by using the diazo chemical process. It is also known as the blue-line process since the result is blue lines on a white background. It is a contact printing process which accurately reproduc ...

and subjects reminiscent of performance art. Working for over 40 years, she is often inspired by the act of depicting a three-dimensional space onto a two-dimensional plane. She often uses mirrors, lights, and props for conceptually-based pieces. As she continues her practice, her work has continued to pure abstraction. Kasten completed her Master in Fine Arts Degree in sculpture textile design from

California College of Arts and Crafts California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the mo ...

in 1970. She has won many awards, notably the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982. In 2015, Kasten was given the first career survey of her work, entitled "Barbara Kasten: Stages" at the

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum in Philadelphia. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to e ...

. It traveled to the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts where it was presented in conjunction with the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Monographs

*
Barbara Kasten: Architecture & Film (2015–2020)
', edited by Stephanie Cristello. Texts by Stephanie Cristello, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Humberto Moro, and Mimi Zeiger. Milan: Skira, 2022. ()

edited by Ellen Alderman and Lisa Leshowitz, text by Alex Klein. Chicago: Graham Foundation; New York: DAP, 2015. ()
''Barbara Kasten: Stages''
JRP, Ringier, Zurich, essays by Alex Kitnick, Alex Klein,

Jenni Sorkin Jenni Sorkin (born August 29, 1977) is an American art historian, curator, and educator. She is best known for her writing in art criticism, and for highlighting work by feminist artists and artists working in fiber and associated crafts. B ...

(2015) () *''Barbara Kasten: Works 1986-1990'', RAM, Tokyo, Japan, essays by Deborah Irmas, Meg Perlman, Michele Druon (1991) () *''Constructs: Barbara Kasten'', New York Graphic Society and The Polaroid Corporation, essay by Estelle Jussim (1985) () *''How We See: Photobooks by Women'', 10x10 Photobooks, (2018) ()

Public collections

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, Chicago, Illinois *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York, New York *

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shangha ...

, Los Angeles, California *

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

, Los Angeles, California *

TATE Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

, London, UK *

New Mexico Museum of Art The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located at 107 West Palace Avenue, one block off the ...

, Santa Fe, New Mexico *

Ackland Art Museum The Ackland Art Museum is a museum and academic unit of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded through the bequest of William Hayes Ackland (1855–1940) to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is located a ...

, Chapel Hill, North Carolina *

Center for Creative Photography The Center for Creative Photography (CCP), established in 1975 and located on the University of Arizona's Tucson campus, is a research facility and archival repository containing the full archives of over sixty of the most famous American pho ...

, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona *Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia, Washington *Saddle Mountain Elementary School, Mattawa, Washington

Selected solo exhibitions

*"Barbara Kasten: Works",

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is an art museum in central Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, opened 1994. It presents modern and contemporary art and is financed by the ''Kunststiftung Volkswagen.'' It takes up aspects of the industrial city of Wolfsburg, whic ...

, Germany (2020) *"Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber", Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, U.A.E. (2019) *"Intervention, 2018" at Creative Chicago: An Interview Marathon, AON Grand Ballroom, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois (2018)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kasten, Barbara 1936 births Living people California College of the Arts alumni University of Arizona alumni Photographers from Illinois 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American women