Hannah Wilke

Hannah Wilke

selections from S.O.S. Starification Object Series, 1974

Biography


Born in New York in 1940, Hannah Wilke grew up in New York City and suburban Long Island, and received a B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1962. By the middle 1960’s, she had begun making vaginally shaped sculptures, mostly in ceramic, that ranged from raw to elegant. Developing this imagery throughout her career as a feminist statement and also out of interest in its formal possibilities, she went on to explore similarly sensual abstract forms in latex wall sculptures of the 1970s. A pioneer of video and performance art, Wilke staged events in which her own body, often mostly or entirely unclothed, became the vehicle of some of her most radical provocations. Her mother’s illness with cancer, followed by her own, dramatically changed the direction of Wilke’s work, adding a disturbing and powerful dimension to her achievement. She died in 1993, at 52.


Using a wide range of unconventional media, including latex and chewing gum as well as photography and film, she paid tribute to predecessors like Marcel Duchamp with humorous irreverence. Her key concern was the body as instrument and object of visual expression.

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Jan 29, 1994

New York Times Group Show An Artist's Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Exhibitions

Oct 2023 – Feb 2024 Group Show Airspace

Mar 05 – Mar 08, 2020 Group Show The Armory Show 2020

Sep 18 – Nov 29, 2019 Hannah Wilke Force of Nature

Jun 11 – Aug 23, 2018 Group Show Reprise: Summer Show 2018

Hannah Wilke

Intra-Venus No. 1, 1992

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Hannah Wilke

Intra-Venus No. 1, 1992

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Hannah Wilke

Brushstrokes, January 19, 1992

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Hannah Wilke

Brushstrokes, January 24, 1992

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Hannah Wilke

Intra-Venus Series #6: February 19, 1992

from the "Intra-Venus" series

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Hannah Wilke

Intra-Venus Series No. 10: June 22, 1992

from the "Intra-Venus" series

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Hannah Wilke

Self Portrait with Durer Wing, 1976

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Hannah Wilke

S.O.S. Starification Object Series, 1974

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Hannah Wilke

S.O.S. Starification Object Series, 1974

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Hannah Wilke

S.O.S. Starification Object Series, 1974

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Hannah Wilke

S.O.S. Starification Object Series, 1974

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Hannah Wilke

Untitled, 1974

from "Needed Erase Her" series

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Hannah Wilke

One Care Just Ain't Enough These Days, 1964

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Hannah Wilke

Equinox, 1965

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Hannah Wilke

Untitled, 1964

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Hannah Wilke

Untitled, 1964

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Hannah Wilke

Untitled, 1960s

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Hannah Wilke

Untitled, 1960s

Hannah Wilke

The intra-Venus Tapes, 2007

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Hannah Wilke

The intra-Venus Tapes, 2007

installation view

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Hannah Wilke

The Intra-Venus Tapes, 2007

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

The Intra-Venus Tapes, 2007

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

Performalist Self-Portraits, 1996

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

Performalist Self-Portraits, 1996

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

Intra-Venus, 1994

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

Intra-Venus, 1994

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

The intra-Venus Tapes, 2007

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

The Intra-Venus Tapes, 2007

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

The Intra-Venus Tapes, 2007

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

Performalist Self-Portraits, 1996

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

Performalist Self-Portraits, 1996

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

Intra-Venus, 1994

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hannah Wilke

Intra-Venus, 1994

installation view