Moira Roth was a feminist art historian and art critic who was Trefethen Professor of Art History at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

in Oakland, California from 1985 to 2017. She taught at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

from 1974 to 1985. She was educated at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

in England, and received a B.A. in sociology and an M.A. from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and a PhD from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1974. She wrote extensively on contemporary art, editing ''The Amazing Decade: Women and Performance Art in America 1970-1980, A Source Book'', published by Astro Artz (1983). Her collection of essays, ''Difference/Indifference: Musings on Postmodernism, Marcel Duchamp and John Cage'', was published, with a commentary by Jonathan D. Katz, by Psychology Press (1998), exploring the construction of masculinity and conflicting identities. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for Art in 1997, and the National Recognition in the Arts Award from the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

in 2006. She appears in Lynn Hershman Leeson's 2010 documentary film ''

!Women Art Revolution ''!Women Art Revolution'' is a 2010 documentary film directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and distributed by Zeitgeist Films. It tracks the feminist art movement over 40 years through interviews with artists, curators, critics, and historians. Synop ...

''.

Publications

Books

Roth authored and edited numerous books, including writing the introduction and texts (together with commentary by Jonathan D. Katz), ''Difference/Indifference: Musings on Postmodernism, Marcel Duchamp and John Cage'', 1998 in Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture Series, Amsterdam, Holland: Gordon and Breach Publishing Group, 1998 She edited the following books, ''

Rachel Rosenthal Rachel Rosenthal (November 9, 1926 – May 10, 2015) was a French-born interdisciplinary and performance artist, teacher, actress, and animal rights activist based in Los Angeles. She was best known for her full-length performance art pieces whi ...

'', Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1997 and ''Abraham's Daughter: The Life and Times of

Rose Hacker Rose Hacker (3 March 1906 – 4 February 2008) was a British socialist, writer, sex educator and campaigner for social justice. At her death, aged 101, she was the world's oldest newspaper columnist. Life Hacker was born in central London. Her pa ...

'', London: Deptford Forum Publishing Ltd., 1996 She edited and wrote the introduction for, ''We Flew Over the Bridge; the Memoirs of

Faith Ringgold Faith Ringgold (born October 8, 1930 in Harlem, New York City) is an American painter, writer, mixed media sculptor, and performance artist, best known for her narrative quilts. Early life Faith Ringgold was born the youngest of three children ...

'', Little Brown, November 1995 (reprinted in 2005, Duke University Press) and edited and contributed to ''Connecting Conversations: Interviews with 28 Bay Area Women Artists'', Eucalyptus Press, Mills College, 1988 and ''The Amazing Decade: Women and Performance Art in America 1970-1980, A Source Book'', Los Angeles: Astro Artz, 1983.

Selected articles

“Interview with Suzanne Lacy” (abridged by Laura Meyers from the unpublished 1990 interview by Roth with Lacy, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Washington DC), Entering the Picture: Judy Chicago, the Fresno Feminist Art Program, and the Collective Visions of Women Artists (ed. Jill Fields), New York: Routledge, 2012 “Villa’s Word in Collision: A Study in Four Part, 1976-2007,” Carlos Villa and the Integrity of Spaces (ed. Theodore S. Gonzalez), San Francisco: Meritage Press, 2011 Introduction, “Martha Wilson: A Woman With a Mind of Her Own,” Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces (ed. Martha Wilson), New York: Independent Curators International, 2011 “Suzanne Lacy: Three Decades of Performing and Writing/Writing and Performing,” in Leaving Art: Suzanne Lacy's Writings on Performance, Politics and Publics, Durham, North Carolina and London: Duke University Press, 2010, pp.xvii-x1i “Allan Kaprow’s Tree, a Happening,” Archives of American Art Journal, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC., Spring 2008 “Women’s Rights and History, 1910-2008,” in Ginger Wolfe-Suarez: As Long As I live You Will Live, Mills College Art Museum Catalog, 2008 (5 pages) “An Interview with John Baldessari (1973),” edited by Naomi Sawelson-Gorse, X-tra, vol. 8, no. 2, 2005, pp. 14–35 “An Interview with John Cage (1971),” edited by Naomi Sawelson-Gorse, in Etant donné, Paris, No. 6, Fall 2005 (bilingual issue on John Cage and Marcel Duchamp), pp. 136–161 "Faith Ringgold: Putting Jones Road on the Map," Nka, Journal of Contemporary African Art, #13/14, Spring/Summer 2001. art 7 of Traveling Companions/ Fractured Worlds “Suzanne Lacy, Between Aesthetics and Politics” (and an interview), Flintridge Foundation Awards for Visual Artists, 1991–2000, edited by Noriko Gambin and Karen Jacobson, Pasadena: Flintridge Foundation, 2000 "Of Self and History: Exchanges with Linda Nochlin" Art Journal, Fall 2000, reprinted in Aruna d'Souza, ed., Of Self and History, In Honor of Linda Nochlin, Thames and Hudson 2001. art 5 of Traveling Companions/Fractured Worlds "The Aesthetic of Indifference," Artforum, November, 1977. Reprinted (with postscript) in And (English publication), Fall 1990. Reprinted in Dancing Around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp, edited by Carlos Basualdo and Erica F. Battle, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2012.

Filmography

'' (2010) directed by

Lynn Hershman Leeson Lynn Hershman Leeson (née Lynn Lester Hershman; born 1941) is a multimedia American artist and filmmaker. Her work combines art with social commentary, particularly on the relationship between people and technology. Leeson is a pioneer in new med ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Moira 1933 births 2021 deaths People from London British art historians Women art historians Feminist writers Alumni of the London School of Economics Mills College faculty New York University alumni University of California, Berkeley Performance art