Mary Bauermeister (American, born Germany, 1934-2023). <em>Writing, 1966</em>, 1966. Mixed media: acrylic, ink, plaster, glass on fiberboard, 33 1/2 x 33 3/4 x 6 in. (85.1 x 85.7 x 15.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, Caroline A.L. Pratt Fund and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 67.273. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 67.273_PS9.jpg)

Mary Bauermeister (American, born Germany, 1934-2023). Writing, 1966, 1966. Mixed media: acrylic, ink, plaster, glass on fiberboard, 33 1/2 x 33 3/4 x 6 in. (85.1 x 85.7 x 15.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, Caroline A.L. Pratt Fund and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 67.273. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 67.273_PS9.jpg)

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Writing by Mary Bauermeister is wild.

Isn't it? I can stand in front of that one forever and always see something different!

Absolutely. You'd never get the same perspective twice.

Bauermeister said of her work, "I was so happy to have found the optical lenses, which, when put over the words in my lens boxes, would distort and change and make relative my statements. They were not meant as absolute truth, they were in-between results of a thinking and feeling process."

There are so many different kinds of lenses here....she actually bought twenty boxes of lenses from an antique shop in the Netherlands in 1961, which had a bunch of lenses in all sizes and strengths, and used them in her work !

Thank you. I've never seen something like that.

Neither had I, until this exhibition!

Writing, 1966

Contemporary Art

Mary Bauermeister’s first studio in Cologne, Germany, hosted her collaborations with avant-garde artists including American composer John Cage and Korean-American artist Nam June Paik. In 1962, Bauermeister moved to New York, drawn to its nascent assemblage and found object–based movements. Her “thought boxes,” like Writing, combine aspects of play and chance that relate to the Fluxus movement and subvert traditional viewer/artwork relationships. Using optical lenses, Bauermeister destabilizes the eye’s singular gaze. A flow and complexity of images, writing, and conceptual relationships emerge from her hand-drawn and handwritten ink formations. Puns and wordplay abound, alluding to her exploration of the English language.

ARTIST Mary Bauermeister, American, born Germany, 1934-2023

CULTURE American

MEDIUM Mixed media: acrylic, ink, plaster, glass on fiberboard

DATES 1966

DIMENSIONS 33 1/2 x 33 3/4 x 6 in. (85.1 x 85.7 x 15.2 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Verso: "112 / Writing / M. Bauermeiser / 1966 / Clean glass with acetone and cotton / never water or soap"

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 67.273

CREDIT LINE Carll H. de Silver Fund, Caroline A.L. Pratt Fund and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund

EXHIBITIONS

Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Mary Bauermeister (American, born Germany, 1934-2023). Writing, 1966, 1966. Mixed media: acrylic, ink, plaster, glass on fiberboard, 33 1/2 x 33 3/4 x 6 in. (85.1 x 85.7 x 15.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, Caroline A.L. Pratt Fund and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 67.273. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 67.273_PS9.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 67.273_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2014

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