Thyrza Nichols Goodeve is a writer, interviewer, artist, and teacher active in the field of contemporary art and culture.

Biography

Goodeve was born in Middlebury, Connecticut, where she lived until her family moved to Windham, Vermont. Her brother is actor

Grant Goodeve Grant Goodeve (born July 6, 1952) is an American actor and television host. He is best known for his role as David Bradford, the eldest son on ABC television's ''Eight Is Enough'' from 1977 to 1981; he sang the theme song for the show, as well. M ...

. Her maternal great-great-grandfather was the Vermont politician and

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

Colonel

William T. Nichols William Thomas Nichols (March 24, 1829 - April 10, 1882) was a 19th-century politician, soldier, and businessman. He served in both houses of the Vermont legislature and commanded the 14th Vermont Infantry during the American Civil War. After t ...

, while her paternal great-great-grandfather was Orvil (sometimes spelled Orville) Grant, a younger brother of U.S. President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

. She attended the Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut and Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH) in Massachusetts. In 1975, through NMH, she attended the American School of Tangier where she met

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

and

Mohammed Mrabet Mohammed Mrabet (real name ''Mohammed ben Chaib el Hajam''; born March 8, 1936) is a Moroccan author, artist and storyteller of the Ait Ouriaghel tribe in the Rif region. Mrabet, mostly known in the West through his association with Paul Bowles, ...

, key influences on her career as a writer. She received a B.A. from

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

(creative writing, film, philosophy), 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 ...

(cinema studies), and a Ph.D. from the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

under

Donna Haraway Donna J. Haraway is an American Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology studies. Sh ...

and James Clifford. She lives in Brooklyn Heights, New York.

Writing and performance

Goodeve is known both as an essayist and as an interviewer. She writes on diverse topics ranging from vaudeville to cyborgs to the art of doodling, and she has published in such respected periodicals as ''Artforum'', ''Parkett'', ''Art in America'', ''Artbyte'', ''The Guggenheim Magazine'', ''The Village Voice'', ''The Brooklyn Rail'', ''Art Agenda'', and ''Camerawork''. From 2017 to 2019 she was the Senior Art Editor of ''The Brooklyn Rail'', following which she became an Editor-at-Large. She has interviewed

Matthew Barney Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...

, Yvonne Rainer, Ellen Gallagher, the

Quay Brothers Stephen and Timothy Quay ( ; born June 17, 1947) are American identical twin brothers and stop-motion animators who are better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They were also the recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding ...

, McKenzie Wark, Tim Rollins and K.O.S.,

Aziz + Cucher Aziz + Cucher, consisting of Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher, are American artists working collaboratively since meeting in graduate school in 1990 at the San Francisco Art Institute. They are considered pioneers in the field of digital imaging and ...

, and

Carolee Schneemann Carolee Schneemann (October 12, 1939 – March 6, 2019) was an American visual experimental artist, known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. in poetry and philosophy from Bard College and ...

. Her book-length conversation with the influential science and technology scholar Donna Haraway offers a wide-ranging and intimate introduction to Haraway's challenging work. Among other things, she argues that science fiction offers a model for Haraway's imaginative theorizations. Goodeve has also written on Jeff Koons,

Raymond Pettibon Raymond Pettibon (born Raymond Ginn, June 16, 1957) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Pettibon came to prominence in the early 1980s in the southern California punk rock scene, creating posters and album art mainly for ...

, Tony Oursler, Michael Joaquin Grey,

Matthew Ritchie Matthew Ritchie (born 1964) is a British artist who currently lives and works in New York City. He attended the Camberwell School of Art from 1983 to 1986. He describes himself as "classically trained" but also points to a minimalist influence. ...

, Joseph Nechvatal, Heide Hatry, Eve Andrée Laramée, and

Lesley Dill Lesley Dill (born 1950) is an American contemporary artist. Her work, using a wide variety of media including sculpture, print, performance art, music, and others, explores the power of language and the mystical nature of the psyche. Dill curre ...

. As a performer, Goodeve has appeared in works by Yvonne Rainer, Joseph Nechvatal, Bradley Rubenstein, and Ellen Harvey. She appears as the graduate student in Yvonne Rainer's 1985 film ''The Man Who Envied Women''.

Teaching

From 1995 to 1997, Goodeve worked as a research associate at 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), ...

on the American Century Exhibition. From 1998 to 1999, she was Senior Instructor at the Whitney Independent Studio Program. Since 1999, she has been on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts, teaching in the M.F.A. programs in Art Criticism and Writing; Art Practice; and Computer Art. She has also taught in SVA's undergraduate

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and film programs. Outside of New York, Goodeve has taught at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

and is the program coordinator for the Maryland Institute College of Art summer intensive program in New York City.

Publications

;Books * ''How Like a Leaf: A Conversation with Donna Haraway''. New York: Routledge, 1999. * ''Ellen Gallagher''. London: Anthony d’Offay, 1999. (Exhibition catalog). * ''Cremaster 5''. New York: Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 1997. (Exhibition catalog). ;Selected essays and interviews
"Matthew Barney 95: Suspension [Cremaster], Secretion [pearl], Secret [biology]"
''Parkett'' 45, 1995, pp. 67–69. *"Cady Noland: Vaudville as Encyclopedia, History as Vaudeville." ''Parkett'' 46, 1996, pp. 92–96. *"Dream Team: Thyrza Nichols Goodeve Talks with the Brothers Quay", ''Artforum'' 84, 1996. (Interview). * "Houdini’s Premonition: Virtuality and Vaudeville on the Internet", ''Leonardo'', October/November 1997. *"Rainer Talking Pictures". In ''A Woman Who'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. (Interview with Yvonne Rainer).
"These Are the Forms That We Live With"
Azizcucher.net, 1999. (Interview with Aziz + Cucher).
"Richard Serra and the Brain: A Form Not Seen Before"
''Journal of Neuro-Aesthetic Theory'' 1, 1997-99.
“Surrealism and the Cyborg”
''ArtLab'' 1, Spring 2003.
"Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids"
''The Brooklyn Rail'', Summer 2007.
"Two Days in the Lives of Art as Social Action: Shakespeare, Darwin, and Hanging Out with Tim Rollins and K.O.S."
''The Brooklyn Rail'', Dec. 18, 2013.
"Jean-Luc Mylayne's 'Chaos'"
''Art Agenda'', Nov. 5, 2014. * "The Cat is My Medium: The Art and Writing of Carolee Schneemann", ''Art Journal'', Spring 2015.
"Andrea Fraser with Thyrza Nichols Goodeve"
''The Brooklyn Rail'', April 6, 2016.
"'What Forms of Making Might Spin the Stories We Need to Lift Ourselves from the Distractions of the Immediate?': Ann Hamilton with Thyrza Goodeve"
''The Brooklyn Rail'', Feb. 1, 2017.

References

External links

Thyrza Nichols Goodeve's website

Goodeve's ''Artforum'' contributor's page

Goodeve talking about the Quay Brothers (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodeve, Thyrza Nichols Mass media theorists American art critics American art historians American art curators American women curators Maryland Institute College of Art faculty Cultural historians American women historians Women art historians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women