Rosemarie Castoro (1939-2015) called herself a "paintersculptor," and is known for her singular take on the modernist narratives of Minimal and Conceptual art. In her SoHo loft—where artists such as
Lawrence Weiner,
Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin,
Carl Andre, and
Yvonne Rainer met—she developed a willfully complex practice, emphasizing the analytical and inter-personal, and favoring transgression and metamorphosis over orthodoxy and linear progression. She was a central figure of the New York scene of the 1960s and 1970s, participating in numerous landmark exhibitions, and appearing in several of Rainer's performances.
Castoro's work tirelessly deals with art's context of enunciation, and the psychological and social implications of the body as a physical instrument. She initially explored the potential of abstract and monochrome painting, going on to expand their spheres and modes of operation to incorporate the body, and even the exhibition space thanks to decisive sculptural experimentation, organic metal and Masonite shapes, street works, and architectural interventions. In so doing, she distorted elementary forms through her haptic, integrated, sexualized treatment. As an erstwhile participant in the reflections of the Art Workers' Coalition, she approached the modernist heritage from a social and political perspective. She took part in
Distillation, an exhibition organized in 1966 by Eugene Goossen, the high priest of an American school of painting freed from external influence. Together with Christine Kozlov and Adrian Piper, she was one of the women artists featured in Ursula Meyer's anthology of Conceptual art in 1972. Lucy R. Lippard included her in her famous
Numbers exhibitions in 1969—championing Castoro as having "subverted or overridden Minimalism on its own turf."
