Senga Nengudi papers

Sendga Nengudi (1943- ), visual and performance artist, arts educator and Black avant-garde artist in 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles and New York City.

Senga Nengudi, born Sue Irons on September 18, 1943, is a visual artist notable for her work in sculpture and performance. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in California with her mother from the age of seven. After studying art and dance at California State University, Los Angeles and Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, Nengudi went on to create art as part of the Black avant-garde communities of 1960s-1970s Los Angeles and New York City, including Studio Z, a collective known for improvisational and experimental practice. Among her more notable collaborators were fellow Studio Z artists David Hammons and Maren Hassinger. Throughout her career, Senga Nengudi’s work has been exhibited in numerous galleries, including in the Just Above Midtown Gallery in New York City and the Pearl C. Woods Gallery in Los Angeles.

Senga Nengudi’s work deals heavily with transformation; she uses abstract, sometimes shifting forms to convey complex ideas about the “shape” or nature of her subject. Pantyhose and water-filled vinyl bags are two materials Nengudi uses to demonstrate the varied and complex shapes that ideas can hold. The R.S.V.P. exhibit is a prime example of this ongoing theme; in this series, Nengudi uses pantyhose to represent the elasticity and transformative nature of the feminine form. The pantyhose were filled with sand, stretched and fixed to gallery walls to demonstrate the ways through which a woman’s body is stretched and transformed by pressure from pregnancy, and metaphorically, a symbol of a women’s persona. Her choice of nylon adds a commentary on the irreversibility of some such transformations, as nylon is a material which loses its restorative properties over time, if given sufficient stress.

Additionally, many of Nengudi’s contributions to art history center around her passion for education and art. As an artist, Nengudi received the Women’s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award (2010), Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2005-2006), and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Competition Award (2005-2006). She received an Art Matters grant and served as artist-in-residence at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2005-2006). Nengudi is strongly committed to arts education, serving as a retired educator at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) Visual Arts and Performing Arts Department and continuing to be actively involved with arts programs emphasizing diversity in the community.

As a dancer and sculptor, Nengudi’s inspiration for art evolved from a wide range of sources including African and Japanese cultural traditions. When Sue Irons returned to Los Angeles in 1974 from Japan, she changed her name to Senga Nengudi. “Senga” means “listen” or “hear” in Duala, and “Nengudi” translates to “a woman who comes to power as a traditional healer.” She approached the artform of dance and sculpture inspired by the ritualistic performances of traditional African ceremonies, Japanese Kabuki theater, cultural and political events from the 1960s, such as the civil rights movement and the Black Arts Movement, and other forms of modern dance. In essence, Nengudi’s exposure to Japanese culture and other international cultures is evident in her exhibitions, artwork and performances.

In addition to her myriad art curations, installations, sculptures and performances, Nengudi created art paintings and photography, and wrote poetry. She has created poetry and photography using the pseudonym Lily B. Moor. Nengudi also uses different names, all of which have a personal thread to them, for each medium: Propecia Leigh as a photographer; Harriet Chin as a painter; and Lily Bea Moor as a writer. Her aim is to encourage people to look at things differently and to respond to the work as activations in itself.

Senga Nengudi currently resides in Colorado.