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Martha Rosler (born 1943) is an American artist. She is a
conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...
ist who works in
photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
and photo text,
video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...
,
installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...
,
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, and
performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...
, as well as writing about art and culture. Rosler's work is centered on everyday life and the public sphere, often with an eye to women's experience. Recurrent concerns are the media and war, as well as architecture and the built environment, from housing and homelessness to places of passage and systems of transport.


Early life and education

Born in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York, in 1943, Rosler spent formative years in California, from 1968 to 1980, first in north
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
county and then in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. She has also lived and taught in Canada. She graduated from
Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Ac ...
in Brooklyn, as well as
Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...
(1965) and 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 ...
(1974). She has lived in New York City since 1981.


Career

Rosler's work and writing have been widely influential. Her media of choice have included photomontage and photo-text, as well as video, sculpture, and installation. Rosler has lectured extensively, nationally and internationally. She taught photography and media, as well as photo and video history and critical studies, at
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
, in new Brunswick, New Jersey, where she was a professor for thirty years, attaining the rank of Professor II. She also taught at the
Städelschule The Städelschule (), Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, is a tertiary school of art in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It accepts about 20 students each year from 500 applicants, and has a total of approximately 150 students of visual a ...
in
Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, as well as serving as visiting professor at the University of California's San Diego and Irvine campuses, and elsewhere. Solo exhibitions of Rosler's work have been organized by 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 (1875–194 ...
in New York (1977), Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (1987), Museum of Modern Art in Oxford (1990), The New Museum in collaboration with the
International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...
in New York, (1998–2000), Sprengel Hannover Museum (2005),
Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...
in London (2006),
University of Rennes The University of Rennes is a public research university which will be officially reconstituted on 1 January 2023 and located in the city of Rennes, in Upper Brittany, France. The University of Rennes has been divided for almost 50 years, before ...
(2006), and Portikus in Frankfurt (2008). Her work has also been included in major group exhibitions such as
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...
(1979, 1983, 1987, and 1990),
Documenta 7 ''documenta 7'' was the seventh edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 19 June and 28 October 1982 in Kassel, West Germany. The artistic director was Rudi Fuchs Rudolf Herman "Rudi" Fuchs (born ...
and 12 (1982 and 2007), Havana Biennale (1986),
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
(2003),
Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Every two years, the city of Liverpool hosts an extensive range of artworks, projects, and a programme of events. The biennial commissions leading ...
(2004),
Taipei Biennial The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM; ) is a museum in Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. It is in the Taipei Expo Park. The museum first opened on August 8, 1983, at the former site of the United States Taiwan Defense Command. It was the first ...
(2004) and '' Skulptur Projekte'' (2007). Rosler serves in an advisory capacity to the departments of education 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 (1875–194 ...
and 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 ...
, and at the Center for Urban Pedagogy (all New York City). She is a board member of the
Vera List Center for Art and Politics The Vera List Center for Art and Politics is an American nonprofit research organization and public forum for art, culture, and politics, established in 1992. Vera List was an American art collector and philanthropist. The Jane Lombard Prize fo ...
at the New School, New York and an Advisory Board board member of the Center for Urban Pedagogy. She has also served on the board of directors of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, New York, and she is a former member of the boards of directors of the Association for Independent Video and Film and the Media Alliance, and a former trustee of the Van Alen Center, all in New York City. Since the early 1980s she has been a regular lecturer at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York, where she was formerly a faculty member. Rosler is known for her writing as well as her art work in various media. She has published over 16 books of her artwork and her critical essays on art, photography, and cultural matters, some of which have appeared as well in translation. Her essays have been widely published, anthologized, and translated. She was interviewed for the 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 ...
''.


Work


''Semiotics of the Kitchen''

''
Semiotics of the Kitchen ''Semiotics of the Kitchen'' is a feminist parody single-channel video and performance piece released in 1975 by Martha Rosler. The video, which runs six minutes, is considered a critique of the commodified versions of traditional women's roles ...
'' (1974/75) is a pioneering work of feminist
video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...
in which, parodying early television cooking shows, Rosler demonstrates some hand tools of the kitchen in alphabetical order. As her gestures begin to veer into an unexpected and possibly alarming direction, the character eventually dispenses with the tools and uses her body as a kind of semaphore system. Rosler has suggested that this darkly humorous work is meant to challenge social expectations of women in regard to food production and, more broadly, the role of language in determining these expectations. The issue the work calls up is whether the woman can be said to "speak herself." "Even though it was obscure looking (on purpose) and inelegant (on purpose) and unedited (on purpose), it began to look like a naïf moment of production that was the best that could be done at the time. In other words, it was seen as a pioneering work because of its low quality of production".


Other video work

Further video works include ''Vital Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained'' (1977), ''Losing: A Conversation with the Parents'' (1977), and ''Martha Rosler Reads Vogue'' (1982), with
Paper Tiger Television Paper Tiger Television (PTTV) is a non-profit, low-budget public access television program and open media collective based in New York City. Currently operating from Brooklyn, PPTV was co-founded by media activist and Academy Award nominated doc ...
; ''Domination and the Everyday'' (1980) and ''Born to Be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby $/M'' (1988), also with Paper Tiger Television. Many of her video works address geopolitics and power, including ''Secrets From the Street: No Disclosure'' (1980); ''A Simple Case for Torture, or How to Sleep at Night'' (1983); ''If It's Too Bad to be True, It Could Be DISINFORMATION'' (1985); the three-channel installation ''Global Taste: A Meal in Three Courses'' (1985); and ''Because This Is Britain'' (2014), and many others. Rosler employs performance-based narratives and symbolic images of mass media to disrupt viewers' expectations. Rosler says, "Video itself 'isn't innocent:' Yet video lets me construct, using a variety of fictional narrative forms, 'decoys' engaged in a dialectic with commercial TV." These concepts are emphasized in such works as ''
Semiotics of the Kitchen ''Semiotics of the Kitchen'' is a feminist parody single-channel video and performance piece released in 1975 by Martha Rosler. The video, which runs six minutes, is considered a critique of the commodified versions of traditional women's roles ...
'', in which a static camera is focused on a woman in a kitchen who interacts with kitchen utensils, naming and demonstrating their uses in odd gestures, speaking to the expectations of women in certain domestic spaces.


Photography and photomontage

Rosler's photo/text work ''The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems'' (1974/75) is considered a seminal work in conceptual and postmodern photographic practice. The series of 45 black and white prints pair photos of storefronts on the
Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "B ...
, at the time of the work's making a famous "skid row" of New York City, with photographs of mostly metaphoric groups of texts referring to drunks and drunken behavior. The photos are displayed in a grid to accentuate the anti-expressionist nature of the work and the inherent limitation of both visual and linguistic systems to describe human experiences and social problems. Some of Rosler's best-known works are collected under the title'' House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home'' (c. 1967–72). This is a series of photomontages that juxtapose aspirational scenes of middle-class homes, mostly interiors, with documentary photos from the
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 ...
. These images were primarily distributed as photocopied fliers in and around antiwar marches and occasionally in "underground" newspapers. They continue the tradition of political photomontage in the style of
John Heartfield John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a 20th century German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements ...
and
Hannah Höch Hannah Höch (; 1 November 1889 – 31 May 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage, or fotomontage, is a type of collage in which the pa ...
as well as pop art such as Richard Hamilton's Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?. Both the war images and the domestic interiors were collected from issues of
Life Magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...
and similar mass-market magazines, but these works sought to reunite the two apparently separate worlds to imply connections between the industries of war and the industries of the home and their common understandings . Rosler revisited this series in 2004 and 2008 by producing new images based on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, under the title '' House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, New Series''. Sensing that her original series had become accepted and aestheticized, her new series was designed to address continuities that paralleled the
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 ...
and unsettle complacent viewers. Rosler described the "rah rah" attitude of American media and politics that reminded her of the political manipulations of the past. Also widely noted are her series of photomontages entitled ''Body Beautiful, or Beauty Knows No Pain'' (c. 1965–72), addressing the photographic representation of women and domesticity. These works slightly preceded the antiwar montages and spurred their making. Many of these works are concerned with the geopolitics of entitlements and dispossession. Her writing and photographic series on roads, the system of air transport, and urban undergrounds (subways or metros) join her other works addressing urban planning and architecture, from housing to homelessness and the built environment, and places of passage and transportation. Much of her work also focus antiwar and feminist ideologies in the 1960s and 2000s. Rosler's art inserts domestic and private themes into the public sphere in order to make political, social, and instructional critiques.


Exhibitions

Rosler has had numerous solo exhibitions. A retrospective of her work, “Positions in the Life World” (1998–2000) was shown in five European cities (Birmingham, England; Vienna; Lyon/Villeurbanne; Barcelona; and Rotterdam) and, concurrently, at the
International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...
and the New Museum of Contemporary Art (both in New York). She has recently been the subject of an extensive retrospective exhibition at the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM), in Turin. In 2006 her work was the subject of solo exhibitions at the University of Rennes and in 2007 at th
Worcester Museum of Art
Her work has been seen in the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
of 2003; the
Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Every two years, the city of Liverpool hosts an extensive range of artworks, projects, and a programme of events. The biennial commissions leading ...
, the Taipei Biennial (both 2004), and the
Singapore Biennale The Singapore Biennale is a large-scale biennial contemporary art exhibition in Singapore, serving as the country’s major platform for international dialogue in contemporary art. It seeks to present and reflect the vigour of artistic practices in ...
(2011), and the Thessaloniki Biènnale (2017); as well as many major international survey shows, including the " Documenta" exhibitions in
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
, Germany, of 1982 and 2007, Skulptur Projekte Münster in 2007, and several
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...
s. In 1989, in lieu of a solo exhibition at the
Dia Art Foundation Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumb ...
in New York City, Rosler organized the project "If You Lived Here...", in which over 50 artists, film- and video producers, photographers, architects, planners, homeless people, squatters, activist groups, and schoolchildren addressed contested living situations, architecture, planning, and utopian visions, in three separate exhibitions, four public forums, and associated events. In 2009, an archive exhibition based on this project, "If You Lived Here Still," opened at e-flux's gallery in New York and then traveled (2010) to Casco Office for Art Design and Theory, in Utrecht, Netherlands, and to La Virreina Centre de la Imatge in Barcelona. Following the problematic addressed by these exhibitions, Rosler together with the urbanist
Miguel Robles-Durán Miguel Robles-Durán (born July 25, 1975, Mexico City, Mexico) is an urbanist, Associate Professor of Urbanism (tenured) at The New School / Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, and co-founder of the non-profit Cohabitation Strategi ...
worked on an urban installation project in Hamburg, Germany, called We Promise!(2015), which confronts the conflicting promises of urban regeneration projects in Europe via a set of public posters on the street and in public transport. Versions of the 1989 show have been mounted in many locations on several continents. In 2016, a projected year-long project at the New Foundation Seattle and in the Seattle, under the rubric "Housing Is a Human Right," was to reprise all three exhibitions of the Dia exhibition of 1989, "If You Lived Here..."—but focusing especially on contemporary Seattle. However, the New Foundation, which had also made her the first recipient of its award to a distinguished female artist working in the field of social justice, abruptly ceased public operations after the completion of the first two shows. Subsequently, also in 2016, Rosler organized an exhibition in New York that included much of the Dia and Seattle material but focused on New York City. Working with her Seattle curator Yoko Ott, and
Miguel Robles-Durán Miguel Robles-Durán (born July 25, 1975, Mexico City, Mexico) is an urbanist, Associate Professor of Urbanism (tenured) at The New School / Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, and co-founder of the non-profit Cohabitation Strategi ...
, and with the assistance of Dan Wiley, who had worked with her on organizing key components of the 1989 show, as well as many others, Rosler put on the exhibition ''If you can't afford to live here, mo-o-ove!'' at Mitchell-Innes and Nash, renamed as a public space, the Temporary Office of Urban Disturbances. Four public forums on the issues of art and gentrification and the privatization of housing were also held. At the Utopia Station exhibition at the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
of 2003, Rosler worked with about 30 of her students from Stockholm and Copenhagen, as well as a small, far-flung internet group of former workshop participants, 'the Fleas', and her graduate students from her video seminar at Yale, to produce a mini-pavilion, newly designed and built but purposely left unfinished, as well as large banners, and a collective newspaper, as well as many projects, both individual and collective, exploring utopian schemes and communities and their political and social ramifications. Rosler has also produced two tours of historical sites, one in Hamburg (1993) and one in Liverpool (2004), in conjunction with curated art projects. At the
Frieze Art Fair Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Frieze London takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. In the US, the fair ran on New York's Randall's Island from 2012–19 and in 2 ...
(London) of 2005, she conducted a tour of this temporary site from its siting and construction to all aspects of its labor, including customer service, food service, toilets, VIP lounges, publicity, maintenance, and security. Her solo show ''Meta-Monumental Garage Sale'' was held at 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 ...
(MoMA) in New York in November 2012, revisiting a series of exhibitions she had held in 1973 in San Diego and 1977 in San Francisco that centered on the American garage sale. The sale, held in MoMA's atrium was inspired by Rosler's interest in garage sales, a social form of small-scale, local—small town and suburban—commerce largely organized and frequented by women, which she first experienced when she moved from New York, where such phenomena were then completely unknown, to Southern California. At the request of museum curators, she restaged such sales in several European art locales and in New York City starting in 1999, culminating in the Fair Trade Garage Sale at the Museum of Cultural History in Basel, in conjunction with the 2010 Basel Art Fair, and then at MoMA in 2012. The 2012 “Meta-Monumental Garage Sale” at MoMA offered over 14,000 items, including Rosler's accumulated holdings—many of which were rolled over from previous iterations of this work—and items solicited from museum employees and the public. There were also two issues of a newspaper and two public discussions, one of which included a psychic, assessing questions of value and meaning. The work, since its inception in 1973, was intended to invoke questions of art and value, as the events were always held in museums and noncommercial galleries, or in spaces associated with them, as well as to call attention to the liminal domestic spaces that women regularly negotiate economically. Starting in November 2005, e-flux sponsored the "Martha Rosler Library," a reading room in which over 7,500 volumes from her private collection were made available as a public resource in venues in and around art institutions, schools, and libraries. The collection started at e-flux's New York gallery and then traveled to the
Frankfurter Kunstverein The Frankfurt Art Association (german: link=no, Frankfurter Kunstverein) is an art museum founded in 1829 by a group of influential citizens of the city of Frankfurt, Germany. The aim of the institution is to support the arts in the city, which w ...
in Germany; to Antwerp's NICC, an
artist-run space An artist-run space or artist-run centre (Canada) is a gallery or other facility operated or directed by artists, frequently circumventing the structures of public art centers, museums, or commercial galleries and allowing for a more experimental ...
, in conjunction with the MuHKA (Museum of Contemporary Art); to United Nations Plaza School in Berlin; to the Institut National de L'Histoire de L'Art in Paris; to Stills in Edinburgh; to John Moore's Art School in Liverpool; and to the Gallery at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, i ...
, before being retired. At the "Martha Rosler Library," visitors could sit and read or make free photocopies. Other projects, such as reading groups and public readings, were organized locally in conjunction with the project. In 2018, the
Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. List of Jewish museums Notable Jewish museums include: *Albania ** Solomon Museum, Berat *Australia ** Jewish Mu ...
in New York City presented ''Martha Rosler: Irrespective'', a survey exhibition showcasing the artist's five decades-long practice, featuring installations, photographic series, sculpture, and video from the 1960s to the present.


Activist vs. political art

While Rosler's primary impetus for her solo exhibition at the Dia Center for the Arts was to expose the invisibility of homelessness and urban policies that conspire to conceal the socially underprivileged, one of the few critiques of the show was that it did little to actually lessen the homelessness problem in America. When asked the difference between making activist work as an artist, and being an activist Rosler said, "To be an activist you probably have to be working intensively with a specific community and a specific issue or set of issues, specific outcomes...I am an artist. I make art. And I was also a full-time professor. Activism is an on-going process, and it’s true that I worked with activists on that project, but one thing is certain: activists don’t expect intractable problems to be solved by an exhibition or a political campaign and certainly not in six months." Rosler is known to make work around a plethora of social and political idea, from civil rights, to anti-war efforts, to women's rights. Given this information and her definition of an "activist," it is safe to assume Rosler is an artist making activist work, or political work. Rosler is a professor and frequently collaborates with her students, bringing forward a new generation of political art, with different backgrounds on the subject.


Personal life

Rosler's son is the graphic novelist
Josh Neufeld Josh Neufeld (born August 9, 1967) is an alternative cartoonist known for his nonfiction comics on subjects like Hurricane Katrina, international travel, and finance, as well as his collaborations with writers like Harvey Pekar and Brooke Gladsto ...
; they have collaborated on a number of projects.


Published works

Martha Rosler's essays have been published widely in catalogues, magazines, such as ''
Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...
'', ''
Afterimage AfterImage is a Filipino rock band formed in 1986, best known for their songs "Habang May Buhay", "Next in Line", and "Mangarap Ka". They disbanded in 1997 and became active again in 2008 after they reunited and released their fourth studio alb ...
'', ''Quaderns'', and ''
Grey Room ''Grey Room'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly, in print and online, by the MIT Press. Founded in 2000, it includes work in the fields of architecture, art, media, and politics. To date it has featured contributions by such ...
'', and edited collections, including ''Women Artists at the Millennium'' (October Books/MIT, 2006) among many others. She has produced numerous other "word works" and photo/text publications; now exploring cookery in a mock dialogue between Julia Child and
Craig Claiborne Craig Claiborne (September 4, 1920 January 22, 2000) was an American restaurant critic, food journalist and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for ''The New York Times'', he was also the author of numerous cookbooks and ...
, now analyzing imagery of women in Russia or exploring responses to repression, crisis, and war. Her 1981 essay, "In, Around, and Afterthoughts (on documentary photography)," has been widely cited, republished, and translated and is credited with a great role in dismantling the myths of photographic disinterestedness and in generating a discussion about the importance of institutional and discursive framing in determining photographic meaning. Rosler has published sixteen books of photography, art, and writing. Among them are ''Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Essays 1975-2001'' (MIT Press, 2004), the photo books ''Passionate Signals'' (Cantz, 2005), ''In the Place of the Public: Observations of a Frequent Flyer'' (Cantz, 1997), and ''Rights of Passage'' (NYFA, 1995). ''If You Lived Here'' (Free Press, 1991) discusses and supplements her Dia project on housing, homelessness, and urban life. Several books, in English and other languages, were published in 2006, including a 25-year edition of ''3 Works'' (Press of the
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The univ ...
) with a new foreword by Rosler. The collection ''Imágenes Públicas'', Spanish translations of some essays and video scripts, was published in 2007. Her book ''Culture Class,'' on gentrification, artists, art institutions, and the Culture Class theory, was published by e-flux and Sternberg Press in 2013.


Videography

* ''A Budding Gourmet'' 1974, 17:45 min, b&w, sound * ''Semiotics of the Kitchen'' 1975, 6:09 min, b&w, sound * ''Losing: A Conversation with the Parents'' 1977, 18:39 min, color, sound * ''The East Is Red, The West Is Bending'' 1977, 19:57 min, color, sound * ''From the PTA, the High School and the City of Del Mar'' 1977, 6:58 minutes * ''Vital Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained'' 1977, 39:20 min, color, sound * ''Travelling Garage Sale'' 1977, 30 min, b&w * ''Domination and the Everyday'' 1978, 32:07 min, color, sound * ''Secrets From the Street: No Disclosure'' 1980, 12:20 min, color, sound * ''Optimism/Pessimism: Constructing a Life'' 1981, 44 minutes * ''Watchwords of the Eighties'' 1981-82, 62 minutes * ''Martha Rosler Reads Vogue'' 1982, 25:45 min, color, sound * ''A Simple Case for Torture, or How to Sleep at Night'' 1983, 62 minutes * ''Fascination with the (Game of the) Exploding (Historical) Hollow Leg'' 1983, 58:16 min, color, sound * ''If it's too bad to be true, it could be Disinformation'' 1985, 16:26 min, color, sound * ''Global Taste: A Meal in Three Courses'' 1985, 30 minutes, 3-channel installation * ''Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby $/M'' (with Paper Tiger Television) 1988, 35 min, color, sound * ''In the Place of the Public: Airport Series'' 1990, 4 hrs, color, sound * ''Greenpoint: The Garden Spot of the World'' 1993, 19:24 minutes * ''How Do We Know What Home Looks Like?'' 1993, 31 min, color, sound * ''Seattle: Hidden Histories'' 1991-95, 13 min, color, sound * ''Chile on the Road to NAFTA'' 1997, 10 min, color, sound * ''Prototype (God Bless America)'' 2006, 1 minute * ''Semiotics of the Kitchen: An Audition'' 2011, 10:26 min, color, sound * ''Because This Is Britain'', 2014, 3 minutes * ''Museums Will Eat Your Lunch'', 2014, 3 minutes * ''Pencicle of Praise'', 2018, 12 minutes


Awards

* 2005 Spectrum International Prize in Photography — accompanied by a retrospective, “If Not Now, When?” largely of photo and video works but also a garage sale, at the
Sprengel Museum Sprengel Museum is a museum of modern art in Hanover, Lower Saxony, holding one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building situated adjacent to the Masch Lake (german: Maschsee) approximately south ...
in Hanover and, on slightly smaller scale, at the Neue Gesellschaft der Bildende Kunst, or NGBK in Berlin. The book ''Passionate Signals'' accompanied this exhibition. * 2006 Oskar Kokoschka Prize — Austria's highest fine arts award * 2007
Anonymous Was A Woman Award The Anonymous Was A Woman Award is a grant program for women artists who are over 40 years of age, in part to counter sexism in the art world. It began in 1996 in direct response to the National Endowment for the Arts' decision to stop funding in ...
* 2009 USA Artists Nimoy Fellow for photography * 2009 Civitella Ranieri Residency * 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award (
Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...
) * 2011 Deutsche Akademische Austausch Diennst (DAAD) Berlin fellowship * 2012 Doctorate in Fine Arts Honoris Causa (
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The univ ...
) * 2012 Distinguished Feminist Award (
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 ...
) * 2014 Doctorate in Fine Arts Honoris Causa (
Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
) * 2016 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (
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 ...
) * 2016 New Foundation Seattle Inaugural award — for a woman artist working toward social justice * 2016 Distinguished Artist Award (Women's Caucus for Art) * 2017 Lichtwark Prize (City of Hamburg, Germany) — awarded every five years


Bibliography (selected)

* "Service: A Trilogy on Colonization" (New York: Printed Matter), 1978. Republished 2008. Translated into Italian, 2013. * "Martha Rosler: 3 Works" (Press of the Nova Scotia college of Art and Design), ''3 Works'' (1981; republished Press of the
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The univ ...
, 2006) , including the following essay: * "In, around, and afterthoughts (on documentary photography)" (1981) * ''If You Lived Here: The City in Art, Theory, and Social Activism'' (Free Press, 1991) * ''Rights of Passage'' (NYFA, 1995) * ''In the Place of the Public: Observations of a Frequent Flyer'' (Cantz, 1997) * ''Martha Rosler: Positions in the Life World'' (MIT Press, 1999) * ''Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Essays 1975-2001'' (MIT Press; an October Book, 2004) * ''Passionate Signals'' (Cantz, 2005) * ''Imágenes Públicas'' (Editorial Gustavo Gili, 2007) * ''Culture Class'' (e-flux and Sternberg Press, 2013) * ''Clase Cultural'' (Caja Negra, 2017) * ''Martha Rosler: Irrespective'' (Yale University Press and the Jewish Museum, 2018) * ''Ober, Cara. “Martha Rosler: Art as Activism, Democratic Socialism, and the Changing Role of Women Artists as They Age.” BmoreArt Baltimore Contemporary Art, 4 July 2019


See also

*
Feminist art movement in the United States The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early 1970s and sought to promote the study, creation, understanding and promotion of women's art. First-generation feminist artists include Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Suzanne Lac ...


Notes


References

* * Cotter, Holland
"If It's Too Bad to Be True, It Could Be Disinformation,”
''New York Times,'' Art in Review section, Nov. 11 2005 * Diack, Heather. “Too Close to Home: Rethinking Representation in Martha Rosler’s Photomontages of War,” ''Prefix Photo'' (Toronto), Vol. 7, no. 2 (Nov. 2006). pp. 56–69. * Hoffmann, Jens. “The Familiar Is Not Necessarily the Known,” ''NU: The Nordic Art Review'' (Stockholm), Vol. III, No. 2, 2001, pp. 58–63 * Huitorel, Jean-Marc. “Martha Rosler, Sur/Sous le Pavé.” ''ArtPress,'' July/August 2006. * Meyer, Richard. “Feminism Uncovered: On the Wack! Catalogue,” ''Artforum,'' Summer 2007. pp. 211–212, 548. * Moffet, Charles. "Martha Rosler - Feminist Art." The Art History Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. * Pachmanová, Martina. “Umeni bourat myty ve svete kolem nás i v nás.” ''Aspekt'' (Bratislava), 12/2000-1/2001, pp. 130–136 * Pachmanova, Martina
"Interview with Martha Rosler: Subverting the Myths of Everyday Life,"
''n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal'' (London), issue 19 online, May 2006 pp. 98–109 * Paterson, Mary. "Martha Rosler: art activist: Mary Paterson interviews Martha Rosler," ''n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal'' (London), vol. 23 print, pp. 87–91 * Richard, Frances. “Martha Rosler,” ''Artforum,'' Feb 2005, p. 173 * Stange, Raimar. “Martha Rosler: Von der notwendigke it (zitierne) der Kunst/ The Need and Necessity for Quotes and Quoting in Art,” ''Spike'', Winter 2005 * von Bismarck, Beatrice. “Freedom I Have None: Martha Rosler in der Galerie Christian Nagel, Berlin.” ''
Texte zur Kunst ''Texte zur Kunst'' is a German contemporary art magazine. History ''Texte zur Kunst'' was founded in 1990 in Cologne by art historian Stefan Germer and art critic Isabelle Graw. It has been published in Berlin since 2000. Since the death of ...
,'' #62, June 2006.


External links

*
New Museum archive

Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture

Martha Rosler
in th
Video Data Bank

Martha Rosler, Mediateca Media Art space
*
Martha Rosler
in Electronic Arts Intermi


Martha Rosler: Irrespective
at Jewish Museum (Manhattan), the Jewish Museum
Conversation/podcast with Martha Rosler about her work, her relationship with photography, the artistic circles in the seventies and the seminal video art scene, 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosler, Martha 1943 births 20th-century American photographers American conceptual artists American pop artists American video artists American women video artists Artists from Brooklyn Brooklyn College alumni Erasmus Hall High School alumni Feminist artists Living people University of California, San Diego alumni Women conceptual artists 20th-century American women photographers 21st-century American women photographers 21st-century American photographers