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| RoseLee Goldberg | |
|---|---|
| Name | RoseLee Goldberg |
| Birth date | 1947 |
| Birth place | Alexandria, Egypt |
| Occupation | Curator, historian, critic, author |
| Known for | Founding director of Performa (biennial), scholarship on performance art |
| Notable works | Performance: Live Art Since 1960 |
RoseLee Goldberg is an American historian, curator, and critic renowned for pioneering work on performance art and live art. She founded the Performa (biennial) in New York and authored foundational texts that shaped study and presentation of ephemeral practices across museums, biennials, and festivals. Goldberg's career bridges scholarship, curatorial innovation, and institutional activism, influencing artists, curators, academics, and cultural institutions worldwide.
Goldberg was born in Alexandria, Egypt and raised in a family connected to Mediterranean and European diasporas. She emigrated to the United States and pursued higher education at Bryn Mawr College and later at institutions associated with art history and museum studies in New York City. During formative years she encountered movements and figures such as Fluxus, Happenings, Performance Art, and practitioners from the 1960s avant-garde, informing her doctoral and early research. Her education placed her amid centers like The New School, Columbia University, and cultural venues in SoHo, Manhattan where dialogues about contemporary practice converged.
Goldberg began her professional life as a critic and curator in New York City, contributing to magazines and platforms that covered experimental art and live performance. She worked with institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and independent venues where she staged interdisciplinary programs that connected practitioners from Europe, Latin America, and Japan. Goldberg has served on boards and juries for organizations such as the Getty Research Institute, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and international biennials, shaping acquisitions and commissioning policies. Her leadership at Performa (biennial) established a model for performance commissioning integrated into the infrastructure of museums, theaters, and public space.
Goldberg curated major projects and retrospectives that foregrounded live art within institutionally canonical contexts. Notable programs included surveys and exhibitions featuring artists and figures like Marina Abramović, Yvonne Rainer, Allan Kaprow, Carolee Schneemann, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Chris Burden, Tehching Hsieh, Vito Acconci, Martha Rosler, Robert Rauschenberg, Bruce Nauman, and Gilles Deleuze-influenced performances—presented at venues including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and numerous international festivals. She organized thematic platforms that intersected with institutions like the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, and citywide initiatives in Istanbul, São Paulo, and Venice. Goldberg's curatorial practice emphasized documentation, commissioning, and archival strategies that connected ephemeral works to permanent collections and scholarly archives such as the Archives of American Art and the Getty Research Institute.
Goldberg authored seminal texts and catalogues that became essential for study and teaching of contemporary live practices. Her book Performance: Live Art Since 1960 surveys historical trajectories and includes discussions of artists and movements such as Fluxus, Happenings, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, and key figures like Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham, Isamu Noguchi, Antonin Artaud, Kurt Schwitters, and Nan Goldin. She contributed essays and introductions to catalogues for exhibitions at Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and other institutions, and published in journals and reviews alongside critics and historians including Rosalind Krauss, Hal Foster, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Claire Bishop, and Benjamin Buchloh. Goldberg's scholarship addresses methodologies for documenting live art, citing archives and media repositories such as Video Data Bank and collaborating with academic programs at New York University, Columbia University, and Yale University.
Goldberg has received recognition from cultural institutions and governments for her contributions to contemporary art and performance studies. Honors include awards and fellowships from organizations like the Guggenheim Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and municipal honors from cities hosting Performa (biennial) commissions. She has been a juror and advisor for prizes such as the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and contributed to advisory panels for international festivals including Documenta and the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Academic institutions have awarded her honorary degrees and distinguished lectureships at universities including Princeton University, Harvard University, and Goldsmiths, University of London.
Goldberg's personal networks span artists, curators, scholars, and institutional leaders across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Her marriage and family life have occurred largely within the cultural milieus of New York City and international art capitals, where she has mentored emerging curators and supported artist-led initiatives. Her legacy is evident in the institutionalization of performance within museums, the expansion of commissioning practices exemplified by Performa (biennial), and the continued citation of her writings in curricula for programs in curatorial studies, performance studies, and contemporary art history. Institutions, biennials, galleries, and academic programs continue to deploy her methodologies for documentation, curation, and critical interpretation of live art.
Category:American curators Category:Historians of art