Senga Nengudi – Sprüth Magers

Senga Nengudi. Photo: Ron Pollard

Senga Nengudi’s (*1943) media-spanning oeuvre situates itself at the threshold of sculpture and object-related performance, making a crucial contribution to postminimalism. Known for abstract-poetic work that uses such ordinary materials as nylon stockings, the Colorado Springs-based artist casts new light on the relationship between work and viewer while critically exploring socio-political realities.

A distinguishing feature of Nengudi’s art is its radical opening to the everyday world. Some of her earliest works include pieces that viewers were meant to actively interact with in psychological, affective and discursive ways. One example is her Water Compositions series from the late 1960s and ‘70s, which consisted of heat-sealed vinyl casings filled with colored water. Smaller compositions of this type were displayed on a pedestal, and viewers were encouraged to activate them by picking them up, pressing or shaking them. Larger Water Compositions were attached to the exhibition walls with ropes, their appearance ultimately determined by gravity. Among other things, these sculptures engaged the viewer’s physical sensations, altering the unconscious relationship between the viewer’s body and the amorphous physicality of the objects.

This assemblage of material and body sits at the crux of Nengudi’s practice. It is also evident in her now-iconic R.S.V.P. series, which the artist has been working on since 1975. R.S.V.P. consists of women’s hosiery that has been stretched, knotted, filled with sand and tethered to various points in the exhibition space. The resulting kinetic sculptures become tactile, haptic sites for dance performances by Nengudi’s long-time collaborator Maren Hassinger.

The use of nylon stockings is coded in terms of both gender and ethnicity. Although explicitly made for women, many African American men have also used them to protect and care for their hair. The inherent physicality of the works—some of their elements recall flabby human body parts—is reinforced by the fact that the nylons have already been worn, i.e. shaped, stretched and abraded by various bodies. Nengudi herself once noted that she began working on the R.S.V.P. objects after gaining a new appreciation for the elasticity and resistance of her body and psyche after the birth of her first child. Consequently, these works can also be read as symbols of resilience and stamina. They point to social, gender and ethnic tensions and illustrate the ever-present attempt to alter the shape of female bodies in line with societal fantasies.

Nengudi’s nuanced practice continues to draw on a range of influences including Fluxus, the Gutai group and Happenings, the cultures of free jazz, spoken word, but also Yoruba mythology, Japanese Noh theater and African ritual practices. Her openness to dialogue with other cultures and art forms is a core feature of her work. This receptivity also comes through in such legendary performances as Ceremony for Freeway Fets (1978), a happening with artist friends under a highway bridge, or in more recent works including the video Side by Side (2006), in which she and Maren Hassinger perform collaboratively developed dance pieces. Nengudi’s works speak an artistic language that evokes the gravitas and seriousness of human experience—yet they also have a tangible spiritual presence conjured by the post-dramatic theatricality of cultural codes, as well as a distinct lightness of touch.

Senga Nengudi: Performance Piece
Activated by Julie Anne Stanzak of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch at Lenbachhaus, Munich
Violin: Alexander Bălănescu
Courtesy Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich

Works

Senga Nengudi
R.S.V.P. Reverie "Scribe", 2014

Senga Nengudi
R.S.V.P. Reverie 'Scribe', 2014
Nylon mesh, sand and found metals
231 × 137 × 170 cm
91 × 54 × 67 inches

More views

Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets, 1978

Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets, 1978
C-print
8 horizontal photographs, each: 30 × 45 cm
1 horizontal photograph: 34 × 44.5 cm
2 vertical photographs, each: 45 × 30 cm
8 horizontal photographs, each: 12 × 18 inches
1 horizontal photograph: 14 × 17 1/2 inches
2 vertical photographs, each: 18 × 12 inches

More views

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1988/2018

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018
Newspaper and gold spray-paint
308 × 424 × 429 cm
121 1/4 × 167 × 169 inches

More views

Senga Nengudi
Up Up Up Spreading Wide, 2019

Senga Nengudi
Up Up Up Spreading Wide, 2019
Mixed media installation
Dimensions variable
Installation dimensions at Art Basel Unlimited:
400 × 570 × 506 cm
157 1/2 × 224 3/4 × 199 1/8 inches

More views

Senga Nengudi
Performance Piece, 1978

Senga Nengudi
Performance Piece, 1978
Silver gelatin prints, triptych
101.6 × 80 cm
80 × 101.6 cm
80 × 101.6 cm
Installation: 168.9 × 189.2 cm
40 × 31 1/2 inches
31 1/2 × 40 inches
31 1/2 × 40 inches
Installation: 66 1/2 × 74 1/2 inches

More views

Senga Nengudi
Blossom, 2014

Senga Nengudi
Blossom, 2014
Nylon mesh and metal
184 × 26 × 19 cm
72 3/8 × 10 1/4 × 7 1/2 inches

More views

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014
8 Digital prints
6 horizontal prints, each: 51 × 61 cm
2 vertical prints, each: 61 × 51 cm
6 horizontal prints, each: 20 × 24 inches
2 vertical prints, each: 24 × 20 inches

More views

Senga Nengudi
Studio performance with R.S.V.P., 1976

Senga Nengudi
Studio performance with R.S.V.P., 1976
Silver gelatin print
73.7 × 101.6 cm
29 × 40 inches

Senga Nengudi
Rapunzel, 1981

Senga Nengudi
Rapunzel, 1981
Silver gelatin print
101.6 × 76.2 cm
40 × 30 inches

Senga Nengudi
Water Composition III, 1969–70/2018

Senga Nengudi
Water Composition III, 1969–70/2018
Heat sealed vinyl, coloured water, rope
91 × 120 × 73 cm
35 7/8 × 47 1/4 × 28 3/4 inches

More views

Senga Nengudi
Masked Taping, 1978/79

Senga Nengudi
Masked Taping, 1978/79
Contact sheet, silver gelatin prints
101.6 × 83.2 cm
101.6 × 76.2 cm
101.6 × 76.2 cm
40 × 33 inches
40 × 30 inches
40 × 30 inches

More views

Details

Senga Nengudi
R.S.V.P. Reverie 'Scribe', 2014
Nylon mesh, sand and found metals
231 × 137 × 170 cm
91 × 54 × 67 inches

Senga Nengudi
R.S.V.P. Reverie 'Scribe' (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets, 1978 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018
Newspaper and gold spray-paint
308 × 424 × 429 cm
121 1/4 × 167 × 169 inches

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Up Up Up Spreading Wide, 2019 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Performance Piece (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Blossom, 2014
Nylon mesh and metal
184 × 26 × 19 cm
72 3/8 × 10 1/4 × 7 1/2 inches

Senga Nengudi
Blossom (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Studio performance with R.S.V.P., 1976
Silver gelatin print
73.7 × 101.6 cm
29 × 40 inches

Senga Nengudi
Rapunzel, 1981
Silver gelatin print
101.6 × 76.2 cm
40 × 30 inches

Senga Nengudi
Water Composition III, 1969–70/2018
Heat sealed vinyl, coloured water, rope
91 × 120 × 73 cm
35 7/8 × 47 1/4 × 28 3/4 inches

Senga Nengudi
Water Composition III, 1969–70/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Masked Taping, 1978/79
Contact sheet, silver gelatin prints
101.6 × 83.2 cm
101.6 × 76.2 cm
101.6 × 76.2 cm
40 × 33 inches
40 × 30 inches
40 × 30 inches

Senga Nengudi
Masked Taping, 1978/79 (detail)

Details

1 of 11

Current and Upcoming

Photo: Senga Nengudi, Masked Taping, 1978, photo: Adam Avila

Senga Nengudi
Topologies
Denver Art Museum, Denver
Through April 11, 2021

Senga Nengudi: Topologies is composed of more than 70 abstract and conceptual artworks by the internationally recognized artist, a prominent figure of the 1970s Black American avant-garde and Black Arts Movement.

Link

Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers

Senga Nengudi
Screening and Conversation
December 10–December 11, 2020
Los Angeles

On the occasion of Senga Nengudi’s exhibition at Sprüth Magers, the gallery organized a two-part online program featuring a film by Barbara McCullough and a conversation between Nengudi, McCullough and curator Naima J. Keith on the artists’ past collaborations, their approach to collaboration more broadly, and Nengudi’s exhibition. View a recording of the conversation here.

Senga Nengudi
August 18, 2020–January 13, 2021
Los Angeles

Senga Nengudi
June 7–July 13, 2019
London

The work of Senga Nengudi has been at the forefront of sculptural, performative, and photographic practices for over forty years. Using simple materials in innovative, unexpected ways, Nengudi’s compositions evoke a rich array of references, from subtle allusions to the body, to feminist considerations of space and movement, to the confluence of different cultural and religious rituals. With equal parts rigor and grace, they encourage us to rethink our relationship to the people and world around us.

Senga Nengudi
April 28–September 8, 2018
Berlin

For over four decades, artist Senga Nengudi has been pushing at the boundaries between sculpture, photography, and performance. The exhibition features four recent sculptures from Nengudi’s celebrated R.S.V.P series, which the artist first began in the late 1970s in response to her changing pregnant body. Using nylon stockings, sand, and metal objects, Nengudi generates delicate, webbed and knotted forms that stretch across walls, from one wall to another, or from the wall to the floor. Though decidedly abstract, each sculpture assumes bodily stances and proportions.

POWER
Beverly Buchanan, Elizabeth Catlett, Sonya Clark, Renee Cox, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Karon Davis, Minnie Evans, Nona Faustine, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Ellen Gallagher, Leslie Hewitt, Clementine Hunter, Steffani Jemison, Jennie C. Jones, Simone Leigh, Julie Mehretu, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O'Grady, Sondra Perry, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Joyce J. Scott, Emmer Sewell, Ntozake Shange, Xaviera Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Shinique Smith, Renee Stout, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Rosie Lee Tompkins, Unknown, Kara Walker, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Carrie Mae Weems, Brenna Youngblood
Work By African American Women From The Nineteenth Century To Now
March 28–June 10, 2017
Los Angeles

Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, is proud to present POWER, an exhibition curated by Todd Levin that surveys the work of African American women artists from the nineteenth century to now. Titled after the 1970 gospel song by Sister Gertrude Morgan, the exhibition begins with artists born soon after the Civil War and continues to the present, weaving together fine and folk art traditions to explore how artists have engaged issues of race, gender, and class against our evolving cultural and artistic landscape. The 37 artists in POWER draw into focus their struggle to establish themselves as equal players on the uneven field of the American republic.

Press

Individual Collective: A Conversation with Senga Nengudi
Walter Art Center, article by Allie Tepper, March 2020

“Being Born Black in America Is a Political Act”: An Interview With Senga Nengudi
Hyperallergic, interview by Anna Souter, September 26, 2018

The Improvised Body: The Reemergenc of Senga Nengudi
Hyperallergic, article by Noel Black, September 6, 2014

Senga Nengudi’s “Ceremony for Free way Fets” and Other Los Angeles Collaborations
East of Borneo, article by Nick Stillman, December 7, 2011

Yield to Touch
Frieze, article by Osei Bonsu, October 2018

Biography

Senga Nengudi (*1943, Chicago) lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Selected solo exhibitions include Lenbachhaus, Munich (2019, traveled to Museo de Arte de São Paulo (2020)), Denver Art Museum (2020), Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2018), Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2017–18). Selected group exhibitions include Brooklyn Museum, New York and Venice Biennale (both 2017), Whitney Museum, New York (2013), and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2012).

Education

1971	California State University, Los Angeles
1967	Waseda University, Tokyo
1966	California State University, Los Angeles

Awards, Grants and Fellowships

2014	Art Matters Grant, New York
2013	Arts Advocacy Award, Arts Business Education Awards, Pikes Peak Art Council, Colorado Springs
2011	Artist in Residence, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
2010	Lifetime Achievement Award, Women’s Caucus for the Arts, New York
2009	Panelist, Black Women, But Are They Feminist?, College Art Association, Los Angeles
2008	Panelist, Modern Art in L.A.: African-American Avant-Garde, 1965-1990, Getty Center, Los Angeles
2006	Artist in Residence, Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia
2005	Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Philanthropy Advisors, New York
2005	Biennial Award, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York
2005	Finalist, Ordway Prize, Penny McCall Foundation, New York
2005	Invitational Artist Residency, “Kamp Kippy” Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mount Desert Island
2002	Website of the Week Awarded to www.mountainmovingday.org, Artwomen.org
2001	Panelist, The Black Aesthetic: 1960-2001, University of California, Riverside
2001	Guest Speaker, The State of Feminism in Visual Culture, Colorado University, Colorado Springs
2000	Visiting Artist, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
1997	Visiting Artist, School of Art & Art History, University of Illinois, Chicago
1997	Visiting Artist, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
1996	Guest Curator, Whisper! Stomp! Shout! A Salute to African American Performance Art, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs
1994	Distinguished Service Award, Board of Regents, University of Colorado
1991	Co-President, Performing Arts for Youth Organization, Colorado Springs
1986	Co-Curator with Charles Abramson, 1+1=3, Gallery 1199, New York
1974	Set Designer, Dead Center, Sounds in Motion Dance Co., New York
1974	Grant (Sculpture), Creative Artists Public Service Program (CAPS), New York State Council on the Arts
1965	Orchesis Dance Scholarship

Performances

2012	re.act.feminism, Galerija Miroslav Kraljević, Zagreb; traveled to Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde
2012	Walk Tall, Billy Wilder Theatre, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; in collaboration with Maren Hassinger and Ulysses Jenkins
2011	Video Studio Playback, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
2011	Clifford Owens – Anthology, Museum of Modern Art, New York; in collaboration with Truth and Sweep
2010	Remembering Parker, This Long Century, Online Art Magazine
2006	Side by Side, Nomadic Nights Series, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris; in collaboration with Maren Hassinger
2002	Mountain Moving, Day-Ritual: Celebration Women’s History Month, www.mountainmovingday.org (ongoing)
2001	Developed personas Propecia Leigh, Harriet Chin, and Lily Bea Moor for other media explorations (ongoing)
1999	Walk a mile in my shoes
1998	Mail Art and Long Distance Conceptual Exercises; in collaboration with Maren Hassing
1995	Developed persona of Propecia Leigh for photography work (ongoing)
1995	Lecture/Performance, The Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff
1995	Making a Scene of Ourselves – The Black Arts: Nappy Ruminations on Life in America, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
1995	Singing the Circle: Four Women Creating Themselves (radio performance); in collaboration with Kim Campbell, Stacy Dyson, Felicia Rose Caton Garcia and Jane Hilberry; sponsored by Colorado College, Colorado Springs
1989	Double Think Bulemia, Mouth to Mouth: Conversations on Being (radio performance)
1988	A Series From A to Z, Mouth to Mouth: Conversations on Being (radio performance)
1986	Nature’s Way, Contemporary Art Forum, Santa Barbara, CA
1984	Four, Cotton Exchange, Los Angeles; in collaboration with Chrono, Maren Hassinge and Ulysses Jenkins
1983	Chance Unfrozen, Other Visions Studio, Los Angeles; in collaboration with Cheryl Banks and Roberto Miranda
1983	Spooks Who Sat By the Door, Long Beach Museum, Long Beach, CA
1982	Blind Dates, White Dog, New York; presented by: Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York; in collaboration with Blondell Cummings and Yasuno Tone
1982	Flying, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles; in conjunction with the opening of Afro-American Abstractions, Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles; in collaboration with Maren Hassinger, Ulysses Jenkins and Franklin Parker
1982	Men, Watts Towers Art Center, Watts
1981	Air Propo, Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York; in collaboration with Cheryl Banksand Butch Morris
1980	C.C. Rider, Central Park, New York; in collaboration with Charles Abramson
1980	Alive Performance, California State University, Los Angeles; in collaboration with Maren Hassinger and Franklin Parker
1980	Bird, Jewish Home for the Aged, Reseda
1980	Get Up, Paper Mill, Los Angeles; in collaboration with Houston Conwill, Maren Hassinger and Franklin Parker
1978	Ceremony for Freeway Fets, L.A. Freeway Underpass, Los Angeles; presented by Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles; in collaboration with David Hammons and Maren Hassinger
1977	Costume Study for Mesh Mirage, Studio Performance, Los Angeles
1977	Répondez S’il-vous-plaît, Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York
1977	Performance Piece - Nylon Mesh and Maren Hassinger, Woods Gallery, Los Angeles

Public Collections

Brooklyn Museum, New York

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Centre Pompidou, Paris

Denver Art Museum

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, KiCo Collection

Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

Download full biography

Download full bibliography