Rosenthal, Rachel, 1926-2015

Variant names

Dates:

Birth 1926-11-09

Death 2015-05-10

Birth 1926-11-09

Gender:

Female

Nationality: Americans, Britons,

Language: English, English,

Biographical notes:

Rachel Rosenthal (November 9, 1926 – May 10, 2015) was an interdisciplinary and performance artist, teacher, actress, and animal rights activist based in Los Angeles. She was best known for her full-length performance art pieces which offered unique combinations of theatre, dance, creative slides and live music.

She was a leading figure in the L.A. Women's Art Movement in the 1970s and co-founded the Womanspace Gallery, a cooperatively run gallery devoted to work by female artists, in 1973. She is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Judy Chicago. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.

Rosenthal was the director of the Rachel Rosenthal Company which she formed in 1989 in Los Angeles, California. The company's repertoire deals with themes such as environmental destruction, social justice issues, animal rights, earth-based spirituality, in a hybrid form that combines voice, text, movement, music, video projection, and elaborate theatrical costuming, set design, and dramatic lighting, ultimately challenging the rigid boundaries that have traditionally separated performance art from theater.