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An Alternative History of Art

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Series exploring overlooked visual artists from the 20th century.

Hans Ulrich Obrist

Michael Umney

An Alternative History of Art: Dorothy Iannone

Dorothy Iannone

15/03/2018

BBC Radio 4 - An Alternative History of Art, Dorothy Iannone

Hans Ulrich Obrist profiles overlooked visual artist Dorothy Iannone.

Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of Serpentine Galleries, profiles overlooked artist Dorothy Iannone, whose sexually explicit work resulted in censorship in the 70s and 80s.

Hans Ulrich Obrist, Creative Director of Serpentine Galleries, continues the series exploring overlooked visual artists from the 20th century. 

Born in Boston in 1933, Dorothy Iannone began painting as a self-taught abstract expressionist, exhibiting alongside her husband James Upham in the 1960s. In 1967 on holiday in Iceland, she met artist Dieter Roth and fell in love, leaving her husband the same week. Roth became her muse and her style changed radically taking in bright, cartoon-like paintings, sound recordings and large format artists books.

Her often autobiographical work unapologetically celebrates heterosexual female sexuality and erotic love. In the 70s and 80s, Iannone's art was aggressively censored by police, customs officers of several countries, galleries and even other artists. Where it wasn't censored it was, in her words, "mildly ridiculed...or just ignored." Dorothy is starting to come to prominence as a new generation of female artists take inspiration from her work , which will be displayed on New York's High Line this year.

Contributors include Dorothy Iannone and gallery owner Barbara Wien.

The series features artists selected by curators with varied perspectives - Hans Ulrich Obrist, Iwona Blazwick and Naomi Beckwith. Told broadly chronologically with inter-changing presenters, the series explores why these artists have been obscured and why some are now being reinstated into the 20th century artistic canon.

Presenter: Hans-Ulrich Obrist
Producer: Michael Umney
Researcher: Jessie Lawson
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4

Image (c) Jason Schmidt courtesy Air de Paris, Paris.

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