In the 1960s, Juilliard-trained cellist Charlotte Moorman (1933–1991) became famous for her madcap (and often unclothed) performance antics. More significant is her transformative influence on contemporary performance practice and her dedication to the idea that avant-garde art should reach the widest possible audience. In Topless Cellist: The Improbable Life of Charlotte Moorman, the first book on Moorman’s life and work (2014, MIT Press), curator Joan Rothfuss rediscovers the legacy of an extraordinary American artist. A book-signing follows.
Moorman, who collaborated with artist Nam June Paik on such works as Concerto for TV Cello and Videotapes, is pictured in two works in the current Walker exhibition Art Expanded, 1958–1978.
