Rosemarie Castoro

A central figure of the New York art scene of the 1960s and ’70s, Castoro experimented in painting, sculpture and performance: subversive even for her time

As a self-titled "paintersculptor," Rosemarie Castoro (1939–2015) had a singular take on Minimal and Conceptual art. She initially explored the potential of abstract and monochrome painting, going on to expand their sphere and modes of operation to incorporate the body, and even the exhibition space, thanks to decisive sculptural experimentation, organic metal and Masonite shapes, street works and architectural interventions. In so doing, she distorted elementary forms through her haptic, integrated and sexualized treatment. Together with Christine Kozlov and Adrian Piper, she was one of the women artists featured in Ursula Meyer’s anthology of Conceptual art in 1972. Lucy R. Lippard included her in her famous Numbers exhibitions in 1969—championing Castoro as having "subverted or overridden Minimalism on its own turf." Archival documentation as well as new exhibition views and images of works complete this volume, published with MAMCO Geneva, to make it the most comprehensive monograph available on the artist.