Senga Nengudi

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.

 

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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Senga Nengudi
Rapunzel, 1981

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

Senga Nengudi
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
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

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
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets, 1978 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Ceremony for Freeway Fets (detail)

Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Bulemia, 1990/2018 (detail)

Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Performance Piece (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Performance Piece (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Performance Piece (detail)

Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Blossom (detail)

Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Flying, 1982/2014 (detail)

Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi

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
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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

Senga Nengudi

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
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Masked Taping, 1978/79 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Masked Taping, 1978/79 (detail)

Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Masked Taping, 1978/79 (detail)

Details
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Current and Upcoming
Senga Nengudi
Kaari Upson, Day Coffin - Watermelon, 2020
© Esmé Trust / Kaari Upson Trust

For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability
Group Exhibition
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
Through February 2, 2025

This is the first historical survey of artistic responses to sickness, health, and medicine broadly. In the past decade, the art world has witnessed an explosion of artistic activity surrounding issues of illness, disability, caregiving, and the vulnerability of the human body. Set in motion by the emergence of movements for disability justice, this activity accelerated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet since the 1960s, artists have negotiated and deflected the medical gaze, creating works that assert agency in the face of medicalizing labels and that highlight the role of care in producing new forms of community and healing. Increasingly, artists have come to locate illness and disability not in individual bodies, but as part of a web of interconnected societal, environmental, and historical conditions.

Link

Senga Nengudi
Dia Beacon, New York
Through early 2025

Dia Art Foundation will present a long-term exhibition of work by Senga Nengudi, which will open at Dia Beacon on February 17, 2023. Sculptures and room-sized installations made between 1969 and 2020, including recent acquisitions for Dia’s permanent collection, will be on display. This long-term exhibition of Nengudi’s work will be accompanied by a performance program and publication, revealing the multiplicity of her practice.

Link
Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi with Water Composition II, ca. 1970
Courtesy Tilton Gallery, New York
Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers
Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi
Spirit Crossing
May 17–July 28, 2023
New York

Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers are honored to present an exhibition at the New York gallery that illuminates in-depth Senga Nengudi’s Spirit Flags, an important body of work created by the artist while working in New York in the early 1970s. These evocative works comprise boldly colored fabrics cut into the form of human-sized silhouettes, which Nengudi then affixed with ropes to the walls and edges of rooms, and even staged outdoors in alleyways and across fire escapes. Beautifully staged photographs of Nengudi's Spirit Flags strung in outdoor and indoor locations, shot in 1972, will be on view alongside a selection of sculptural Spirit Flags recreated by the artist for the first time in four decades.

The exhibition is presented jointly with Thomas Erben Gallery.

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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.

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Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi

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.

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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.

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Senga Nengudi
Press

Pulled Bodies, Fabric Spirits, and Celebration: Senga Nengudi’s Elusive Art Finds Joy in the Everyday
Art in America, Online, article by Alex Greenberger, April 28, 2021

Individual Collective: A Conversation with Senga Nengudi
Walker 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. She is the winner of the Nasher Prize for Sculpture 2023. Selected solo exhibitions include Dia: Beacon, Beacon, NY (2023), Philadelphia Museum of Art (2021), Denver Art Museum (2020), Museo de Arte de São Paulo (2020), Lenbachhaus, Munich (2019), Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2018), Baltimore Museum of Art (2018), and Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2017). Recent group exhibitions include Museum of Modern Art, New York (2022), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (2021), Mori Art Museum (2021), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2020), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2018), Brooklyn Museum, New York (2017) and the 2017 Venice Biennale.

Education
1971 California State University, Los Angeles
1967 Waseda University, Tokyo, JP
1966 California State University, Los Angeles
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
2023 Nasher Prize for Sculpture, Dallas
2020 Elected as member to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge
2019 DAM Key Award - Denver Art Museum
CAA Award: Distinguished Feminist Awards - Visual Art
Leadership Award for Outstanding Contribution to Colorado’s Arts Community, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation
2017 Rauschenberg Foundation Artist in Residence (Captiva, Florida)
2016 La Napoule Foundation Artist in Residence (La Napoule, France)
Colorado College Honorary Degree Recipient
2015 United States Artist 10th Anniversary Fellowship -USA Ford Fellow
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York, NY -Artist in Residence
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
Biennial Award, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York
Finalist, Ordway Prize, Penny McCall Foundation, New York
Invitational Artist Residency, “Kamp Kippy” Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mount Desert
IS
2002 Website of the Week Awarded to www.mountainmovingday.org, Artwomen.org
2001 Panelist, ’The Black Aesthetic: 1960-2001’, University of California, Riverside
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
Visiting Artist, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
1996 Guest Curator, Guest ’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
Grant (Sculpture), Creative Artists Public Service Program (CAPS), New
York State Council on the Arts
1965 Orchesis Dance Scholarship
Public Collections
Baltimore Museum of Art
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Dallas Museum of Art
Denver Art Museum
Dia Art Foundation, New York
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia 
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Los Angeles County Museum of Art 
Migros Museum, Zurich
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Fine Art, Houston
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Muzeum Susch, Switzerland
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Princeton University Museum
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Seattle Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, Sammlung KiCo, Munich
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Tate Modern, London
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis