Of Course You Can / Don’t You Dare
PPOW

November 17 – December 22, 2023

Of Course You Can / Don’t You Dare is a solo exhibition of historic works by Carolee Schneemann at PPOW, opening on November 17, 2023. This presentation marks the artist’s seventh solo exhibition with the gallery, and the first major display of Schneemann’s work in New York since her death in 2019. The paintings, drawings, and collaged constructions on view highlight Schneemann’s visual investigation into gesture, movement, and materiality from 1957 through the mid-1960s. The works in the exhibition also explore the significant relationships in her life – musician James Tenney, filmmaker Stan Brakhage, poet Charles Olsen, and photographer Erró – as generators of what Schneemann called “anti-influence.”

As Schneemann carved out her artistic voice, she simultaneously navigated contradicting “guidance” given by her friends and professors. The works that she created created in tandem with and in opposition to these peers, and the influences were both positive and negative. Her generative relationship with Tenney is foregrounded in a series of early drawings of her partner; it culminated in Fuses, an ode to feminine pleasure, heterosexual eroticism, and love that took Schneemann three years to complete.

Carolee Schneemann (1939–2019) received a B.A. in poetry and philosophy from Bard College and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, and is in the permanent collection of major public institutions including Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA; Tate Museum, London, UK; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; among many others. The comprehensive retrospective Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting traveled from Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria (2015), to the Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (2017) and MoMA PS1, New York (2018). In 2022, the major survey Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics was on view at the Barbican Art Centre, London, UK. In 2017, Schneemann was awarded Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion, honoring lifetime achievement.

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