Dorothy Podber
Dorothy Podber | |
---|---|
![]() Podber in 2007 | |
Born | (1932-08-15)August 15, 1932 New York City, U.S. |
Died | February 9, 2008(2008-02-09) (aged 75) New York City, U.S. |
Occupation | Performance artist |
Dorothy Podber (September 15, 1932 – February 9, 2008) was an American performance artist.
Born in the Bronx to a mother who had tried repeatedly to abort her, and to a father who worked for the Jewish mobster Dutch Schultz, Podber was later remembered as a disruptive influence by classmates from West Walton High School.[1]
A wild child of the New York City art scene in the 1950s and 1960s, she helped to run the Nonagon Gallery, which showed the work of a young Yoko Ono and was known for jazz concerts by such performers as Charles Mingus. However, her greatest fame—and notoriety—came from her work as a muse and collaborator with more prominent artists. On one occasion in 1964 she visited The Factory, Andy Warhol's studio, and put a bullet through a stack of his silk-screen paintings of Marilyn Monroe, after which she was banned from the studio. These four paintings were thereafter called The Shot Marilyns, and two are among the most expensive paintings ever sold.
Podber revelled in her bad-girl reputation. In an interview in 2006, she said:
I've been bad all my life. Playing dirty tricks on people is my specialty.[2]
When funds were low, she found unorthodox ways of making money, engaging in businesses as diverse as dispatching maids to doctors' offices in an attempt to gain access to their drug cabinets, and running an illegal abortion referral service. She did paperwork for B'nai Brith long enough to pick its safe and use its contents on her own check-counterfeiting machine. Her attitude to these enterprises bordered on indifference. "I never worked much," she reputedly said.[3]
She was married three times, and had numerous casual liaisons. Her last husband was Lester Schwartz who had a long-term relationship with actor/director Julian Beck. Schwartz died in 1986.[3] Podber cited bisexuality as something she and Schwartz had in common.[1] One boyfriend was a banker with whom she had sexual intercourse only on the banknote-strewn floor of his firm's vault. She had no children by any of her partners. She died in her Manhattan apartment on February 9, 2008, from natural causes, aged 75.
References
- ^ a b "Dorothy Podber obituary in The Telegraph". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-03-05. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
- ^ "Dorothy Podber obituary in The Boston Globe". Boston.com. 2008-02-26. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
- ^ a b New York Times obit on Podber
Sources
- Livingstone, Marco (ed.), Pop Art: An International Perspective, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1991, ISBN 0-8478-1475-0
- Stokstad, Marilyn, Art History, 1995, Prentice Hall, Inc., and Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, ISBN 0-8109-1960-5
- Vogel, Carol (1998). The New York Times: INSIDE ART; Perhaps Shot, Perhaps Not. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
- Warhol, Andy and Pat Hackett, Popism: The Warhol Sixties, Harcourt Books, 1980, ISBN 0-15-672960-1
- Watson, Steven, Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties, Pantheon Books, 2003.
External links
- Dorothy Podber obit
- The Independent: "Dorothy Podber: 'Witch' who shot Warhol's Marilyns"
- v
- t
- e
- 7000 Oaks (1982)
- Amen or The Pederasty (2015)
- Bed-in (1969)
- Breathing in/breathing out (1977)
- Body Pressure (1974)
- Buried (2015)
- Ceci N'est Pas Un Viol (2015)
- Couple in The Cage: Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West (1992–93)
- Cut Piece (1964)
- Eating (2012)
- Empathy and Prostitution (2013)
- Food for the Spirit (1971)
- How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965)
- I'm too sad to tell you (1970–71)
- Luminosity (1997)
- Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) (2014–2015)
- One & Other (2009)
- Rest Energy (1980)
- Rhythm 10 (1973)
- Rhythm 5 (1974)
- Rhythm 2 (1974)
- Rhythm 0 (1974)
- Seedbed (1972)
- Seven Easy Pieces (2005)
- Shot Marilyns (1964)
- The Artist Is Present (2010)
- The Death of The Artist (2018)
- The Fathers (2016)
- The Shadow (2014)
- The Shame (2018)
- Three Weeks in May (1977)
- Untitled (Rape Scene) (1973)
- Untitled [Senior Thesis], 2008 (2008)
- Marina Abramović
- Vito Acconci
- Bas Jan Ader
- Laurie Anderson
- Ron Athey
- Abel Azcona
- Franko B
- Matthew Barney
- Rebecca Belmore
- Joseph Beuys
- David Blaine
- Mark Bloch
- Stuart Brisley
- Günter Brus
- Nancy Buchanan
- Chris Burden
- James Lee Byars
- Sophie Calle
- Papo Colo
- Valie Export
- Bob Flanagan
- Terry Fox
- Coco Fusco
- Guillermo Gómez-Peña
- Cai Guo-Qiang
- Ann Hamilton
- David Hammons
- Jo Hanson
- Newton Harrison
- Sharon Hayes
- Lynn Hershman
- Rebecca Horn
- Tehching Hsieh
- Zhang Huan
- Natalie Jeremijenko
- Joan Jonas
- Allan Kaprow
- Andy Kaufman
- Ragnar Kjartansson
- Yves Klein
- Terence Koh
- Paul Kos
- Yayoi Kusama
- Suzanne Lacy
- Phoebe Legere
- James Luna
- Miki Malör
- Eric Millikin
- Marta Minujín
- Kent Monkman
- Linda Montano
- Frank Moore
- Charlotte Moorman
- Bruce Nauman
- Shirin Neshat
- Pat Oleszko
- Pauline Oliveros
- Mihai Olos
- Yoko Ono
- Eiko Otaki
- Nam June Paik
- Gina Pane
- Mark Pauline
- Petr Pavlensky
- Dorothy Podber
- Jim Pomeroy
- Duke Riley
- Rachel Rosenthal
- Martha Rosler
- Carolee Schneemann
- Tino Sehgal
- Aliza Shvarts
- Barbara T. Smith
- Michael Smith
- Stelarc
- Melati Suryodarmo
- Mierle Laderman Ukeles
- Ulay
- Wolf Vostell
- Robert Whitman
- Hannah Wilke
- Mondo New York (1988 film)
- Kusama: Infinity (2018 film)