Scheme to Annihilate Magnificent Distances : An Artist Memoir

How does one emancipate herself when the constrictions of society are too great to bear? A Scheme to Annihilate Magnificent Distances is both a memoir and the reflection of an era of social and political unrest. Thea’s memories of growing up in post-World War II Brooklyn emerge in poetry-like texts that live beside her story of breaking into the male-dominated New York City art scene in the late 1960s. This combined narrative style, which moves between stream-of-consciousness and structured prose, establishes the rhythm and tone of the book. Thea’s art, much of which is exhibited in this volume, received immediate recognition. Her feminism and her role in the women’s rights movement are telling of the times and deeply personal, and understanding this is central to understanding her art. Following the death of her mother, the nature of Thea''s creative output shifts, and she produces critical rhetoric for the art world in which she was so immersed. A Scheme to Annihilate Magnificent Distances is a record of the artist''s memories and experience, of her art and activism, and it is yet another way in which she has expressed her perception of the world she inhabits.