Person
Biography
Rachel Rosenthal was a Los Angeles-based performance artist whose work melded dance, theater, dramatic monologues, improvisation and visual art to deal with issues including feminism, environmentalism, and animal rights. While she was often called “the doyenne of performance art,” she hated the label, explaining “They just mean I’m very old.” She performed at the Pillow only once, presenting her Obie-winning
Rachel’s Brain as part of the 1989 Splash Festival. This solo explored the history of the earth, evolution, and the human propensity for doing evil. Born in Paris, she graduated from Manhattan’s High School of Music and Art and then returned to France to study with Erwin Piscator and Jean-Louis Barrault. After moving back to New York, she moved in a heady artistic circle that encompassed Merce Cunningham (in whose junior company she danced), Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and John Cage, whose approach to composition influenced her deeply. After retiring from the stage in 2000, she turned to painting and sculpture and continued to lecture and teach worldwide. She also made guest appearances on mainstream television shows, playing the stereotypical avant-garde artist or tarot-card reader. She died at her home on May 10, 2015, at age 88.
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