Sonya Rapoport (October 6, 1923 – June 1, 2015) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

conceptual Conceptual may refer to: Philosophy and Humanities *Concept *Conceptualism *Philosophical analysis (Conceptual analysis) *Theoretical definition (Conceptual definition) *Thinking about Consciousness (Conceptual dualism) *Pragmatism (Conceptual pr ...

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, and New media artist. She began her career as a painter, and later became best known for computer-mediated interactive installations and participatory web-based artworks.

Early life

Sonya (née Goldberg) was born on October 6, 1923, in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and grew up in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...

. There, she regularly attended Saturday classes at the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

where she studied with

Karl Zerbe Karl Zerbe (September 16, 1903 – November 24, 1972) was a German-born American painter and educator. Biography Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903, in Berlin, Germany. The family lived in Paris, France, from 1904 to 1914, where his fath ...

. She spent her childhood summers at the

art colony Art colonies are organic congregations of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, who are often drawn to areas of natural beauty, the prior existence of other artists, art schools there, or a lower cost of living. They are typically mission ...

Ogunquit, Maine Ogunquit ( ) is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,577. Ogunquit is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. History Ogunquit was first a village within ...

Education

Rapoport studied biology at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

and economics at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, graduating with a B.A. in 1946. In 1944, she married Henry Rapoport, a chemistry professor, and went with him to New York, Washington, D.C., and then to Berkeley, CA. Sonya Rapoport pursued her studies in art throughout their moves. She attended the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

where she studied with Reginald Marsh, then entered the Corcoran School of Art and Design to study figurative art and oil painting, and finally enrolled in the graduate program in Art Practice at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where she studied with Erle Loran, receiving her M.A. in 1949. The Berkeley art practice curriculum at that time was heavily influenced by the aesthetic philosophy of

Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...

, although the school produced artists as divergent in their practices as Rapoport,

Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo (31 March 1929 – 11 November 1989) was an American visual artist who became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose ...

, and

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

Career

Early career

In 1971 Rapoport discovered a series of vintage geological survey charts from an Idaho

Snake River The Snake River is a major river in the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States. About long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Begin ...

Dam project in an antique architect's desk she had purchased. She used these charts as a background for drawing and painting, as well as stencils she made from found objects. Objects such as a pool-cue holder signified an udder, while a plastic uterus from an anatomy kit stood for the womb: a lexicon of feminine symbols she referred to as her ''Nu-Shu'' language.

Nüshu Nüshu (; ; ; ) is a syllabic script derived from Chinese characters that was used by ethnic Yao women for several centuries in Jiangyong, a county within the southern Chinese province of Hunan. From the early 21st century there have been of ...

is a script created in the 15th century as a “secret language,” used exclusively by women in Hunan Province, China. Rapoport used this feminist pattern language extensively throughout the 1970s on large-scale paintings as well as mixed-media works on found continuous-feed computer paper. In the late 1970s, Rapoport also developed a collaborative practice as her work moved away from painting and drawing into the realm of installation,

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

, and research-based mixed-media projects. She collaborated with research chemists, software engineers, and anthropologists to realize her increasingly complex projects. For instance, as part her collaboration with the anthropologis
Dorothy Washburn
during the 1970s, Rapoport incorporated archeological notations based on the study of Native American artifacts into her computer drawings. Between 1979 and 1983 Rapoport worked on her conceptual project ''Objects on My Dresser'', which unfolded in eleven successive phases over the five-year period. The final, twelfth phase was developed in the last year of Rapoport’s life and exhibited posthumously (2015). ''Objects on My Dresser'' marked Rapoport’s clear departure from her painting and object-making practice and anticipated her later interactive performance and new media work. Rapoport collaborated with psychologis
Winifred de Vos
to interpret the personal significance of mementos and souvenirs that accumulated on her bedroom dresser, examining them through psychoanalysis, computer coding, and scientific methods. The 12 phases ranged from installations and audience participation performances to single-page publications, and artists’ books, presented at venues including

Franklin Furnace Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, and manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. This locale produced more species of minerals (o ...

Artists Space Artists Space is a non-profit art gallery and arts organization first established at 155 Wooster Street in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1972 by Irving Sandler and Trudie Grace and funded by the New York State Council on the Arts ...

, and Heresies Magazine. A foundational project in conceptual and feminist art, ''Objects on My Dresser'' was also pioneering in its turn to computing and

data visualization Data and information visualization (data viz/vis or info viz/vis) is the practice of designing and creating Graphics, graphic or visual Representation (arts), representations of a large amount of complex quantitative and qualitative data and i ...

. During the 1980s, Rapoport developed related conceptual works that utilized data visualization and computer coding. In some of these projects, Rapoport introduced computer-assisted interactive installations, where the audience was invited to participate and contribute data for the projects’ subsequent iterations. These include ''Biorhythm'', ''Shoe-Field'', ''Digital Mudra'', ''The Animated Soul: Gateway to Your Ka'', and ''Sexual Jealousy: The Shadow of Love''.

Late career

From 1989 to 2013 Rapoport’s artistic focus shifted to

net art upright=1.3, "Simple Net Art Diagram", a 1997 work by Michael Sarff and Tim Whidden Internet art (also known as net art or web art) is a form of new media art distributed via the Internet. This form of art circumvents the traditional dominance o ...

. During this period she produced more than a dozen interactive web projects. Rapoport was an early adopter of internet technology and was affiliated with a community of like-minded creators associated with MIT’
Leonardo
Magazine, including

Judy Malloy Judy Malloy (born Judith Ann Powers; January 9, 1942) is an American poet whose works embrace the intersection of hypernarrative, magic realism, and information art. Beginning with ''Uncle Roger'' in 1986, Malloy has composed works in both new m ...

an
Meredith Tromble
These works were motivated by her interest in the humanistic potential of computers, and informed by her knowledge of programming and experience creating work that responded to viewer’s choices. Reflecting Rapoport’s interest in the social construction of gender, race, and religion, she sourced imagery from a variety of sources, including art history, the sciences, newspapers, and her earlier works. The digitally-collaged imagery and innovative hypertext interfaces that comprise these works embody the early internet aesthetic. In the 2010s, Rapoport’s contribution to contemporary art was recognized in two survey exhibitions and the volume ''Pairing of Polarities: The Life and Art of Sonya Rapoport'', edited by Terri Cohn. In 2014, the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

of Western Americana at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

acquire
Rapoport’s archives

Legacy

Th
Sonya Rapoport Legacy Trust
was established and endowed during Rapoport's lifetime to preserve her work and to broaden its critical and historical recognition. The Trust supports her legacy through a variety of initiatives including exhibitions, loans of artworks, research, publications, conservation, and educational programs for the public and the scholarly communities. It also maintains a collection of Rapoport's artwork in a variety of media and encourages collaborative projects with artists, writers, and scientists in recognition of Rapoport’s unique methodology. Study of th
Sonya Rapoport Papers
at the

, UC Berkeley is also encouraged.

Recent exhibitions

''Sonya Rapoport: biorhythm'',

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st cent ...

, San Jose, California, 2020 ''Spotlight'', Frieze New York, 2020 ''The Computer Pays its Debt: Women, Textiles, and Technology'', 1965-1985, Center for Craft, Asheville, NC, 2020 ''Shifting Terrain – Works on Paper from the Collection'', SFMOMA, 2020 ''Refiguring the Future'', Hunter College Art Galleries, New York, 2019 ''Sonya Rapoport: An Aesthetic Response''
Casemore Kirkeby
Gallery, 2019 ''Yes or No?'
Krowswork
Oakland, California 2015 ''ImPOSSIBLE CONVERSATIONS?'' Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California, 2014 ''ImPOSSIBLE CONVERSATIONS?'' Data Gathering Event. Martina }{ Johnston Gallery, Berkeley, California, 2013 ''Spaces of Life: The Art of Sonya Rapoport''. Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, California, 2012 ''Sonya Rapoport: Pairings of Polarities.'' Kala Institute Art Gallery, Berkeley, California, 2011

References

Bibliography

* Cohn, Terri; Efimova, Alla. ''Sonya Rapoport: Biorhythm''. San Jose Museum of Art, 2020 * Cohn, Terri. "When Sonya Rapoport said 'OK' to computers." ''Frieze'', April 2020 * Barcio, Phillip. "How Sonya Rapoport Used Abstraction to Pioneer Computer Art," ''Ideelart'', February 2020 * Jones, Leslie. "The Personal is Computable: Sonya Rapoport." ''Art in Print'', January 2019 * Cohn, Terri, Efimova, Alla. “Sonya Rapoport: Ensemble Performance.” ''Performa Magazine'', March 2017 * Efimova, Alla; Cohn, Terri. ''Sonya Rapoport: Yes or No?'' Mills College Art Museum, 2016 * Cohn, Terri, ed. ''Pairing of Polarities: the Life and Art of Sonya Rapoport.'' Heyday, 2012

External links

*
Artist's Blog

Sonya Rapoport net art projects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapoport, Sonya Jewish women artists American new media artists American conceptual artists American installation artists American feminist artists Abstract expressionist artists Book artists American digital artists American women digital artists Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Artists from Brookline, Massachusetts Art Students League of New York alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni George Washington University Corcoran School alumni Massachusetts College of Art and Design alumni 1923 births 2015 deaths