Alice Aycock

b. 1946 Harrisburg PA

Brief Accomplishments• BA 1968 Douglass College (Rutgers Univ)• MA 1971 Hunter College• Learned under Robert Morris – minimalist• 1977 solo exhibition at the MoMA in NY• 1983 exhibited at The Museum of

Contemporary Art in Chicago• Taught all over US including Yale U. 88-92• Four National Endowment for the Arts

Fellowships• On Art Commission of the City of New York

1960's

• Three major styles affected my work– Platonic system – eyesight only– Minimalism – art at its base, bringing art closer

to the audience– Conceptual – art goes beyond language

1970's• Many more women became artists• Linda Nochlin – article in '71 - “Why Have There

Been No Great Women Artists?”• Political activity became prominent in art

– Leob student protest @ NYU 5-18-70, 1500– New York art strike @ MoMA, 500 sit-in– Groups such as Women Artists in Revolution

(WAR) & Art Workers Coalition (AWC)– Exclusions from shows led to the first National

Conference on Women in the Visual Arts in '72• Women only exhibitions – Women's Caucus for Art

Feminist Art in the '70's

• Conservative – perpetuate differences between sexes

• Radical – declared patriarchy the enemy• Social – establish group solidarity with

other oppressed groups• Liberal – sexes essentially alike mentally so

need a legislative solution

Personal Views

• I was fortunate to enter the world at the time I did

• Artists should be “ambidextrous, androgynous and ambivalent”

• I am glad I don't look the way I think and think the way I look

• I don't consider myself a feminist, I consider myself an artist

Maze - 1972

Low Building with Dirt Roof - 1973

Simple Network of Underground Wells & Tunnels - 1975

Simple Network of Underground Wells & Tunnels - 1975

Five Walls...the Beginnings of a Complex - 1977

Happy Birthday Day Coronation Piece - 1978

How to Catch and Manufacture Ghosts - 1979

Machine that Makes the World - 1979

The Miraculating Machine in the Garden

- Tower of the Winds - 1980

Collected Ghost Stories from the Workhouse - 1980

Savage Sparkler - 1981

The Hundred Small

Rooms - 1984

A Representation of the Second World - 1984

The Island of the Rose Apple Tree Surrounded by The Oceans of the World

for You O' my Darling - 1987

Project for the 107th Police Precinct - 1992

East River Roundabout - 1995

Sculpture Installation, Sacramento Convention Center - 1996

Sculpture Installation, Sacramento Convention Center - 1996

Cyclone Fragment - 1996

Functional and Fantasy Stair - 1996

Project for a Fountain - 1998

The Star Sifter - 1998

Maze 2000 - 2002

Strange Attractor for Kansas City - 2007

Ghost Ballet for the East Bank Machineworks - 2007

Ghost Ballet for the East Bank Machineworks - 2007

The Uncertainty of Ground State Fluctuations - 2007

Alice Aycock: Sculpture and Projects – Robert Hobbs 2005

REFERENCES• Davies, Hugh. Sitings. La Jolla: La Jolla Museum of

Contemporary Art, 1986.• Fry, Edward F. Alice Aycock Projects 1979-1981.

Tampa: University of South Florida, 1981.• Heller, Nancy. Women Artists :An Illustrated History.

4th ed. New York: Abbeville Press, 2003.• Hobbs, Robert. Alice Aycock: Sculpture and Projects.

Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005.• Kardon, Janet, ed. Machineworks: Vito Acconci, Alice

Aycock, Dennis Oppenheim. Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1981.

REFERENCES (cont)

• National Gallery of Art. "Alice Aycock." Alice Aycock - Biography. 2008. National Gallery of Art. 22 March 2008 <http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?242760>.

• Rosen, Randy. Making Their Mark : Women Artists Move into the Mainstream, 1970-85. New York: Abbeville Press, 1989.

• Schulte, Allan, et al. Sculpture of the 1980's. Sarasota: Award Video and Film Distributors, 1991.

• Vogel, Carol. “Beyond Museum Precincts, The City as Gallery.” New York Times, 22 January 1996, p. C11.