Rosemarie Castoro (born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States; 1939 – 2015) was an American artist associated with the New York Minimalists. She worked in drawing, painting, sculpture, and other media. She was associated with Minimalism, Conceptual art, and

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...

. Castoro was a practitioner of

monochrome painting Monochromatic painting has played a significant role in Modernism, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary Western world, Western visual art, originating with the early 20th-century European avant-gardes. Artists have explored the non-represent ...

and

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

. Movement of the human body through physical space was a recurring theme in her work. A retrospective of her work is being shown at

Mostyn Mostyn is a village and Community (Wales), community in Flintshire, Wales, and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward lying on the estuary of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, located near the town of Holywell, Flin ...

gallery in Llandudno, UK until 24 February 2024.

Life and work

Castoro graduated from Pratt Art Institute in 1963. In the 1960s, she participated in several performances with Minimal Dance pioneer

Yvonne Rainer Yvonne Rainer (born November 24, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is regarded as challenging and experimental.

and became involved with the study of

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

. Castoro graduated from the Pratt Institute,

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

, with a BFA in 1963. She was involved with the

Art Workers Coalition The Art Workers' Coalition (AWC) was an open coalition of artists, filmmakers, writers, critics, and museum staff that formed in New York City in January 1969. Its principal aim was to pressure the city's museums – notably the Museum of Modern Art ...

which met in her studio at 151 Spring Street. In the 1970s, Castoro developed a strong focus on sculpture. In 1971, she created a series of giant minimal sculptures called ''Free Standing Wall Pieces'' which encouraged performative interaction. The surfaces of the panels are treated with graphite,

gesso A restored gesso panel representing St. Martin of Tours, from St. Michael and All Angels Church, Lyndhurst, Hampshire Gesso (; 'chalk', from the , from ), also known as "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso", is a white paint mixture used to coat rigi ...

and marble dust, thickly applied creating massive rough brush strokes. According to a statement made by her gallery representative, “she was acutely aware that women artists working in a formalist style milieu were not spared the gender-based dismissal of the time,” even while she remained “strictly dedicated to her non-representational abstract style of work.”

Rosemarie Castoro at Artpark

Castoro's work, ''Flashers'', is featured in the 1979 poster of

Artpark Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park (or Earl W. Brydges State Artpark) is a state park located in the Village of Lewiston in Niagara County, New York. The park, which is officially named after former New York State Senator Earl Brydges, is gene ...

under the title, "Public Sculpture for the Post-Heroic Age". Artpark features sculptural, performance art, and public art. Castoro made these sculptures— seven-foot-tall figurative black forms of galvanized sheet metal—for Artpark. In this exhibition, on view in New York from May 13–November 13, 1983, Castoro provided a voice for figurative art and a medium for its exploration.

Exhibitions

*''

Women in Abstraction Women in Abstraction. Another History of Abstraction in the 20th Century or ''Elles font l'abstraction. Une autre histoire de l'abstraction au XXe siècle'' was a major exhibition of 20th century abstract art created by women. It was curated by ...

'' at the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, 2021. *'' Carving Space'',

, Llandudno, North Wales, UK, 21 October 2023 – 24 February 2024. A retrospective.

Collections

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York *

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art, formerly known as the Newark Museum, in Newark, New Jersey is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia (including a large collection of T ...

, New Jersey *

Cornell Fine Arts Museum The Rollins Museum of Art is located on the Winter Park campus of Rollins College and is the only teaching museum in the greater Orlando area. The museum houses more than 5,000 objects ranging from antiquity through contemporary eras, including ...

, Winter Park, Florida *University Art Museum, Berkeley *

Centre national des arts plastiques The Centre national des arts plastiques (National Centre for Visual Arts, or CNAP) is a French institution established in 1982 under the Ministry of Culture and Communication that promotes creation of visual arts. It provides assistance to artists ...

, Paris *Collection U.S. Embassy *Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Grants

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

, 1971 *

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) serves to foster and advance the arts, culture, and creativity throughout New York State, according to its website. The goal of the council is to allow all New Yorkers to benefit from the contribution ...

1972, 1973 *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

, 1975, 1985 *Tiffany Foundation, 1977 *

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing funding to visual artists internationally to further their artistic practices. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expr ...

, 1989, 1998

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Castoro, Rosemarie 1939 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American artists American people of Italian descent Pratt Institute alumni Minimalist artists