I cannot imagine a more controversial show than Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics at the Barbican. Reactions to this lifetime survey of the pioneering American feminist ran all the way from fascination to affront, disaffection, awestruck reverence and slavering lust the day I was there. If you are thinking of visiting, take someone with you. Argument was always what she wanted.
Schneemann (1939-2019) started out as a painter in what she called the “Art Stud Club” of New York, but expanded the medium, you might say, to include her own body. All of her fiercely radical art – films, performances, installations, happenings – starts out as a response to macho American conservatism.
