Jay DeFeo
Encyclopedia
Jay DeFeo was a visual artist associated with the Beat generation
who worked c.1950-1989 in the San Francisco Bay Area
.
Born Mary Joan DeFeo in Hanover, New Hampshire
, she came to be known as 'Jay' in high school
in San Jose, California
. She found a mentor in her high school art
teacher, and in 1946 enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley
. She resisted what she called 'the hierarchy of materials', using plaster
and mixing media to experiment with effects, a thread one can see running through the art of that time, especially on the West Coast.
She had been exposed to North America
n native art in her Berkeley studies, thanks to Margaret Peterson O'Hagan; while in England
she studied Africa
n and prehistoric art in London
libraries. She spent a brief time working in Paris, traveling in Europe and North Africa, and for 6 months working in Florence
, where she started to find her own kind of imagery.
Upon returning to Berkeley she rented an apartment where she continued her exploration with image and materials. In the mid-1950s, she supported herself by making and selling jewelry. She met Wally Hedrick
, a student at the California College of Arts and Crafts, whom she married in 1954 and divorced in 1969. Hedrick, Deborah Remington
, Hayward King, David Simpson
, John Allen Ryan and Jack Spicer
founded the Six Gallery at 3119 Fillmore St in San Francisco, on the location of the King Ubu Gallery, which had been run by Jess
and Robert Duncan
. Joan Brown
, Manuel Neri
, and Bruce Conner
would become associates of the Six Gallery. Allen Ginsberg
first read his poem Howl
there at the famous Six Gallery reading
in 1955. In 1959, DeFeo became an original member of Bruce Conner
's Rat Bastard Protective Association
Her most well-known painting, The Rose, took almost eight years to create and weighs 2,300 pounds. Throughout her four decades of making art, DeFeo worked extensively making drawings, paintings on paper, photographs, collages, photo collage
s and paintings. In 1981 she joined the faculty of Mills College
.
In April 1988 Jay DeFeo found that she had cancer. She died in 1989 aged 60.
DeFeo's work is receiving increasing posthumous recognition. Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art
, the Museum of Modern Art
, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
, the Art Institute of Chicago
, the Norton Simon Museum
, the art museum of the University of California, Berkeley
and Mills College Museum of Art. The Whitney holds the largest public collection of her work and is planning a major retrospective to open in November 2012.
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
who worked c.1950-1989 in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
.
Born Mary Joan DeFeo in Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 11,260 at the 2010 census. CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the sixth best place to live in America in 2011, and the second best in 2007....
, she came to be known as 'Jay' in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. She found a mentor in her high school art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
teacher, and in 1946 enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. She resisted what she called 'the hierarchy of materials', using plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
and mixing media to experiment with effects, a thread one can see running through the art of that time, especially on the West Coast.
She had been exposed to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n native art in her Berkeley studies, thanks to Margaret Peterson O'Hagan; while in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
she studied Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n and prehistoric art in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
libraries. She spent a brief time working in Paris, traveling in Europe and North Africa, and for 6 months working in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, where she started to find her own kind of imagery.
Upon returning to Berkeley she rented an apartment where she continued her exploration with image and materials. In the mid-1950s, she supported herself by making and selling jewelry. She met Wally Hedrick
Wally Hedrick
Wally Bill Hedrick was a seminal American artist in the 1950s California counterculture, gallerist, and educator who came to prominence in the early 1960s...
, a student at the California College of Arts and Crafts, whom she married in 1954 and divorced in 1969. Hedrick, Deborah Remington
Deborah Remington
Deborah Remington was an American painter. She lived and worked in New York City and Pennsylvania. Remington was a veteran of more than 30 solo exhibitions and hundreds of group exhibitions including 3 Whitney Museum of American Art annuals...
, Hayward King, David Simpson
David Simpson
David Simpson is a Democratic Unionist politician and proponent of intelligent design in the United Kingdom.-Early life:...
, John Allen Ryan and Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer won the American Book Award for poetry.-Life and work:...
founded the Six Gallery at 3119 Fillmore St in San Francisco, on the location of the King Ubu Gallery, which had been run by Jess
Jess Collins
Jess Collins , simply known today as Jess, was an American visual artist.- Biography :Jess was born Burgess Franklin Collins in Long Beach, California. He was drafted into the military and worked on the production of plutonium for the Manhattan Project...
and Robert Duncan
Robert Duncan (poet)
Robert Duncan was an American poet and a student of H.D. and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the poets of the New American Poetry and Black...
. Joan Brown
Joan Brown
Joan Brown was an American figurative painter who lived and worked in Northern California. She was a notable member of the "second generation" of the Bay Area Figurative Movement....
, Manuel Neri
Manuel Neri
Manuel Neri is an American sculptor, painter, and printmaker and a notable member of the "second generation" of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.- Biography :...
, and Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines.-Early life:...
would become associates of the Six Gallery. Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
first read his poem Howl
Howl
"Howl" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1955 and published as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems. The poem is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation, along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch...
there at the famous Six Gallery reading
Six Gallery reading
The Six Gallery reading was a poetry-reading which occurred at the Six Gallery on Friday, October 7, 1955, at 3119 Fillmore Street in San Francisco....
in 1955. In 1959, DeFeo became an original member of Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines.-Early life:...
's Rat Bastard Protective Association
Rat Bastard Protective Association
The Rat Bastard Protective Association was an informal group of Beat and Funk artists who worked and exhibited together in San Francisco, California from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s. The association was founded by and the group's name was coined by Bruce Conner in 1959...
Her most well-known painting, The Rose, took almost eight years to create and weighs 2,300 pounds. Throughout her four decades of making art, DeFeo worked extensively making drawings, paintings on paper, photographs, collages, photo collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
s and paintings. In 1981 she joined the faculty of Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
.
In April 1988 Jay DeFeo found that she had cancer. She died in 1989 aged 60.
DeFeo's work is receiving increasing posthumous recognition. Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
, the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, the Norton Simon Museum
Norton Simon Museum
The Norton Simon Museum is an Art Museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known by the names: the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum.-Overview:...
, the art museum of the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and Mills College Museum of Art. The Whitney holds the largest public collection of her work and is planning a major retrospective to open in November 2012.
External links
- The Jay DeFeo Trust
- Smithsonian Archives, Interview with DeFeo, 1975: Transcript, Audio excerpt