Untitled (Claudia Watching TV)

Claudia DeMonte
Untitled (Claudia Watching TV), 1986
Papier-mache (celluclay), acrylic and glue
Dorothy & Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2008
Vogel 2009.01.13

Born in Astoria, New York, Claudia DeMonte received a BA at the College of Notre Dame in Maryland in 1969 and an MFA from the Catholic University of Washington in 1971. "First grade through graduate school a Catholic education," she said when Liza Kirwin interviewed her in 1991. "Tons of my stuff comes from about being Catholic and the ritual around being Catholic and the colors of the shrines and the lavishness of benedictions." Successful in Washington, DC , she moved to New York City in 1976 to join the larger art community there. In the same year she took part in Jane Livingstone's international touring show, Liberation: 14 Women Artists "the really first big exposure I had on that level." Her doll-making began at about the same time. "I loved making the [first] doll, and it was made to represent me ... it's evolved to being very universal." Sometimes the dolls are washing dishes or vacuuming, "things that art wasn't made about." Irons, high-heeled shoes, and other stereotypically "womanly" objects recur in her work. She has collected and curated folk art, outsider art, and handmade dolls from different parts of the world. She puts neglected objects on display. New York's East Village scene in the 1980s was sympathetic to her ethos, she told Kirwin, "the breakdown between high art and low art" suited her, and the Gracie Mansion Gallery was particularly supportive. The Vogels saw one of her early shows at the Pam Adler Gallery and Herbert telephoned her afterwards, asking if they could visit her studio. "They have great eyes," shes says, "they buy what they love and they pay better than any rich person I've ever dealt with." DeMonte taught at the University of Maryland from 1972 to 2005 and her work has been collected by numerous museums. (DKS)

Image description: A textured papier-mâché sculpture of a woman watching television. She sits in a green chair with orange-on-yellow spots and wears a long, purple dress with red dots. To her left is a potted cactus. To her right is a lamp with an orange shade on a side table.