Steven Watson (born 1947) is an author, art and
cultural historian
Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
, curator, and
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
maker.
His 1991 book ''Strange Bedfellows: The First American Avant-Garde'' was called "a chapter in our national biography" by
Stefan Kanfer for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' and "a marvelous group portrait of a band of cultural renegades" by ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
''. Watson has written five books about 20th century American
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
and
counterculture movements, curated two exhibitions at the
National Portrait Gallery ("Group Portrait, The First American Avant-Garde" and "Rebels: Painters and Poets of the 1950's"), and served as consultant curator for the
Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude ...
exhibition "Beat Culture and the New America".
Biography
Watson was born in 1947. He grew up in the suburbs of
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
and graduated from Mound High School. He majored in English at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
and participated in anti-
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
protests
A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.
Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
, including a guerrilla theater piece called ''Alice in ROTC-Land'', co-starring with
Sigourney Weaver
Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gram ...
. After graduation, he founded an alternative elementary school called KNOW School in Auburn, California. He studied psychology at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
, where he received his Ph.D. in 1976, and he worked for nineteen years as the staff psychologist of the
Putnam County Community Mental Health Clinic. In 1976, Watson also began writing articles for the
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
,
New York Newsday
''New York Newsday'' was an American daily newspaper that primarily served New York City and was sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The paper, established in 1985, was a New York City-specific offshoot of ''Newsday'', a Long Island- ...
,
Soho Weekly News
The ''SoHo Weekly News'' (also called the ''SoHo News'') was a weekly alternative newspaper published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. The paper was founded in 1973 by Michael Goldstein (1938–2018).
History
The first issue was published on ...
, and Gaysweek. His work on gay culture included the first major article about
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation''I've been involved in gay liberation ever since it first started in 1969'', 15:20 into the interview, Johnson is quoted as ...
, an early extended interview with
Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. who was also a noted community worker in New York. Rivera, who identified as a drag q ...
, and a book about the transgender figure, Minette. At the same time, he began writing books about key circles of the twentieth century. He currently lives in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Published works
Books:
* ''Minette: Recollections of a Part-time Lady'' (with Ray Dobbins) (1979)
* ''Stonewall Romances'' (with Ray Dobbins) (1979)
* ''Strange Bedfellows: The First American Avant-Garde'' (1991)
* ''The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African American Culture'' ''1920-1930'' (1995)
* ''The Birth of the Beat Generation: Visionaries Rebels and Hipsters'' ''1944-1960'' (1995)
* ''Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism'' (2000)
* ''An Eye of the Twentieth Century: Selected Letters of Henry McBride'' (edited with Catherine Morris) (2001)
* ''Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties'' (2003)
Films:
* ''Prepare for Saints: The Making of a Modern Opera'', documentary, for
Connecticut Public Television
Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) is the Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member network for the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is owned by Connecticut Public Broadcasting, a community-based non-profit organization that holds the licenses ...
(writer, director).
* ''Beatrice Wood Remembers'', short documentary, (2019) (writer, director).
Collaborations
Artifacts at the End of a Decade
''Artifacts at the End of a Decade'', organized by Steven Watson and Carol Huebner Venezia, is a boxed multiple that contains the work of 44 artists. Conceived in 1979 and published in 1981, it includes works by
Sol Lewitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism.
LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...
,
Laurie Anderson
Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...
,
Robert Wilson,
R. Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...
,
Lucinda Childs
Lucinda Childs (born June 26, 1940) is an American postmodern dancer/ choreographer and actress. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest mov ...
,
Futura 2000
Leonard Hilton McGurr (born November 17, 1955), known as Futura, and formerly known as Futura 2000, is an American graffiti artist.
Biography
He started to paint illegally on New York City's subway in the early 1970s, working with other artist ...
and other graffiti artists,
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic.
Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
,
Betsey Johnson
Betsey Johnson (born 1942) is an American fashion designer best known for her feminine and whimsical designs. Many of her designs are considered "over the top" and embellished. She also is known for doing a cartwheel ending in a split at the ...
,
Robert Kushner
Robert Kushner(; born 1949, Pasadena, CA) is an American contemporary painter who is known especially for his involvement in Pattern and Decoration. He has been called "a founder" of that artistic movement. In addition to painting, Kushner creates ...
,
Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler (born 1943) is an American artist. She is a conceptual artist who works in photography and photo text, video, installation, sculpture, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture. Rosler's work is centered on everyday ...
, and others. Upon its publication, art critic
John Perreault
John Lucas Perreault ( New York, New York, August 26, 1937 – September 6, 2015, New York, New York) was a poet, art curator, art critic and artist.
Early life
Perreault was born in Manhattan and raised in Belmar and other towns in New Jersey. ...
wrote that "the work is an anthology of sorts, but it is also an object in its own right. It can be compared to artists books, print portfolios, multimedia multiples, etc. In truth, however, there is little to compare ''Artifacts'' within the realm of art.”
''Artifacts'' is currently in the collections of the
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 ...
, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, the
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, the
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 ...
, the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, the
Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburger Bahnhof is the former terminus of the Berlin–Hamburg Railway in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstrasse in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as a contemporary art museum, the , part of the Berlin Nati ...
, and the
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
, among others.
''Artifacts'' was exhibited at the
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
in the summer of 2022, following its acquisition by the
Bibliothèque Kandinsky
The Kandinsky Library (or ''Bibliothèque Kandinsky'' in French) is a library of 20th and 21st century visual arts located at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, France. It also serves as the Documentation and Research Centre of the French National Mus ...
.
References
1947 births
Living people
American documentary film directors
Historians from Minnesota
21st-century American historians
Writers from New York City
20th-century American historians
Writers from Minneapolis
American literary historians
Historians from New York (state)
Film directors from Minnesota
Film directors from New York City
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