Squeak Carnwath

{{Infobox artist

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| name = Squeak Carnwath

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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1947}}

| birth_place = Abington, Pennsylvania, United States

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| field = Painting,
Printmaking,
book art

| education = California College of Arts and Crafts, Goddard College

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| notable_works = The Story of Painting (1999)

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| awards = Flintridge Foundation Award for Visual Artists (2001),
Guggenheim Fellowship (1994),
National Endowment for the Arts (1985, 1980)

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| website = {{URL|http://www.squeakcarnwath.com}}

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Squeak Carnwath (born 1947){{Cite web|title = Squeak Carnwath Bio|url = http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/squeak-carnwath/|website = John Simon Guggenheim Foundation|access-date = 2016-01-20}} is an American contemporary painter and arts educator. She is a professor emerita of art at the University of California, Berkeley.{{Cite web|title = Squeak Carnwath|url = http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/squeak-carnwath|website = vcresearch.berkeley.edu|access-date = 2016-01-20|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160330171020/http://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/squeak-carnwath|archive-date = 2016-03-30|url-status = dead}}{{Cite web|title = Squeak Carnwath, Emeritus|url = http://art.berkeley.edu/people/squeak-carnwath-professor-emeritus/|website = Practice of Art|access-date = 2016-01-20|publisher = University of California, Berkeley}} She has a studio in Oakland, California, where she has lived and worked since 1970.{{Cite web |last1=Yau |first1=John |date=19 January 2014 |title=Weekend Studio Visit: Squeak Carnwath in Oakland, California |url=http://hyperallergic.com/103607/weekend-studio-visit-squeak-carnwath-in-oakland-california/ |access-date=20 January 2016 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}}

Early life and education

Carnwath was born on 1947 in Abington, Pennsylvania. She has explained "Squeak" as "a childhood name that stuck".{{Cite web|url=http://tamarind.unm.edu/artists/view/41-squeak-carnwath|title=Artists: Squeak Carnwath|website=Tamarind Institute of Lithography|access-date=2016-09-12}}

After high school, Carnwath studied art in Illinois, Greece, and Vermont before attending the California College of Arts and Crafts,{{cite web|title=History: California College of the Arts|url=https://www.cca.edu/about/history|website=California College of the Arts|access-date=2018-03-23}} where she studied ceramics, painting, and sculpture with Viola Frey, Art Nelson, Jay DeFeo, and Dennis Leon. She received her MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1977.{{cite book|editor-last1=Heller|editor-first1=Jules |editor-last2=Heller|editor-first2=Nancy G. |title=North American women artists of the twentieth century|year=1995|publisher=Garland|location=New York|isbn=0824060490|page=[https://archive.org/details/northamericanwom00hellrich/page/211 211]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/northamericanwom00hellrich/page/211}}

Work

Carnwath has a distinctive and recognizable style which combines diaristic and personal elements with universal or existential themes. Her paintings "combine text and images on abstract fields of color to express sociopolitical and spiritual concerns."{{cite web|author=King, Sarah|year= 1998|url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n9_v86/ai_21268599/ |title=Squeak Carnwath at David Beitzel|website= Art in America|access-date=11 April 2009}}

Carnwath has described herself ironically as a "painting chauvinist" due to an abiding preference for that medium, although she is also an accomplished printmaker and has created sophisticated Jacquard tapestries, artist books, and mixed media works in addition to her oil and alkyd works on canvas.

Soon after graduating with an MFA, Carnwath began to receive recognition for her work. She received a Visual Arts Fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts{{cite news |last=Butterfield |first=David |date=10 November 1980 |title=National Recognition for Alameda Artist|newspaper=Alameda Times-Star |location=Alameda}} and a SECA Art Award in 1980 from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which included a solo exhibition at the museum.{{cite web|author=Gamblin, Noriko |title=Squeak Carnwath|website=Flintridge Foundation Awards for Visual Artists |url=http://www.flintridgefoundation.org/visualarts/catalog20012002_06-squeakcarnwath.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061008041026/http://www.flintridgefoundation.org/visualarts/catalog20012002_06-squeakcarnwath.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-10-08 |date=2006-10-08 }} The exhibition featured a large sculptural installation titled My Own Ghost. Works on paper related to the My Own Ghost series were also included.{{cite book |last1=Gass |first1=Alison |last2=Zimbardo |first2=Tanya |title=Fifty Years of Bay Area Art: The SECA Awards|location=San Francisco |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |date=2011 |isbn=978-0918471895}}

Following the exhibition, Carnwath focused on paintings and works on paper. Early 1980s artworks included interior scenes, stylized figures, and everyday objects like cups and vases, with titles often painted into wide borders.{{cite news |last=Albright |first=Thomas |date=8 March 1982 |title=Imagism and a New Look|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |location=San Francisco }}{{cite news |last=Boettger |first=Suzaan |date=March 1984 |title=Out of This World |newspaper=City Arts }}{{cite news |last=Fowler |first=Carol |date=26 March 1984 |title=Some Objects Larger Than Life in Hearst Gallery Exhibition |newspaper=Contra Costa Times}} Her work was exhibited at Goldeen Gallery in San Francisco{{cite news |last=Scarborough |first=James |date=20 March 1982 |title=Squeak Carnwath at Hansen Fuller Goldeen Gallery|newspaper=Artweek }} and Van Straaten Gallery in Chicago.{{cite news |author=|date=February 1985 |title=Squeak Carnwath at van Straaten Gallery |newspaper=Art Now/New York Gallery Guide }}

In 1994, Carnwath was awarded the Guggenheim fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.{{cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/squeak-carnwath/|title=Squeak Carnwath|author=|website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|access-date=22 April 2016}} Carnwath was awarded the Lee Krasner Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in its 2018-19 grant cycle.{{cite news |title=Pollock-Krasner Foundation Awards More Than $3 Million in Grants |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/pollock-krasner-foundation-awards-more-than-3-million-in-grants-79438 |access-date=1 November 2019 |publisher=Artforum |date=17 April 2019}} She was inducted into the National Academy of Design along with 15 others in the class of 2019. National Academicians are nominated and selected by over 430 living members, and the honor recognizes each artist's contributions to American culture.{{cite web |title=Class of 2019 |url=https://www.nationalacademy.org/class-of-2019 |website=National Academy of Design |access-date=1 November 2019 |archive-date=1 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101204703/https://www.nationalacademy.org/class-of-2019 |url-status=dead }}

= Repeating iconography =

While Carnwath's icons have shifted over the course of her career, they play an essential role in her compositions. The icons symbolize various elements of culture and history, and blend Carnwath's personal history with universal topics of humanity. Some represent the passing of time, others represent luck, and still others refer to the body and the mind. But rather than ascribe a defined set of meanings, Carnwath leaves room for the viewer to interpret the paintings and prints in their own way. In an interview with author and curator Karen Tsujimoto, she stated "There are subtexts, which are the real texts, and then there are the things like the 'story line,' the thing you thought you saw, but it wasn't the real information."{{Cite book|title=Painting is No Ordinary Object|last=Tsujimoto|first=Karen|publisher=Pomegranate Press|year=2009|pages=62}}

In the mid-1980s, Carnwath produced a series of works based on dog toys including balls, bones, a hand, and a Kong toy.{{cite web |url=http://collection.sjmusart.org/Obj1201?sid=2244&x=389703 |title=Fall Ball by Squeak Carnwath |author= |website=San Jose Museum of Art Online Collection |access-date=22 April 2016 }}

In an essay for a 2001 Flintridge Foundation catalog, Noriko Gamblin describes the evolution of Carnwath's approach to composition and subject matter:

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| Although Carnwath quickly established a distinctive personal style, some aspects of her work have undergone gradual transformations. The strongly geometric structure— characterized by grids, quadrants, and contrasting color bands and fields—of her paintings of the 1980s and early 1990s has loosened into more fluid arrangements of diverse elements, which include structural motifs as well as "decorative" patterns. Similarly, her iconography, which was initially tied to a relatively circumscribed personal symbology, has both expanded and grown more allusive. The early lists, litanies, injunctions, and poetic observations have been joined by more casual notations, which often lend a topical immediacy to her work.

= Use of text in paintings =

Text appears in many of Carnwath's paintings, works on paper, and prints. In an interview with Bart Schneider, she explained " Language kind of messes things up. That's what I like about it. I like that it slows us down. It's incremental. First the letters, then the words, then a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph. Language confounds the image. It calls into question what we think we already know."{{Cite book|title=Horizon on Fire: Works on Paper 1979-2013|last=Carnwath|first=Squeak|publisher=Kelly's Cove Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-9891664-2-3|location=Oakland|pages=101}}

= List paintings =

During the 1990s, Carnwath created series of list paintings, which included paintings describing color, gender norms, and fears, among other topics. Many of the paintings follow a similar format, with a list of associated words grouped in one portion of the canvas, and colors or imagery charted on the remaining portion. For example, the words slime, jade, salad, and sickness are included in a list above swatches of green in the color painting Things Green.{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Roberta |date=31 December 2015 |title=Review: Squeak Carnwath Speaks With Her Varied Palette |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/arts/design/review-squeak-carnwath-speaks-with-her-varied-palette.html?_r=0 |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York }}{{cite news |last=Yau |first=John |date=1 November 2015 |title=Squeak Carnwath's Guilt-Free Zone is Our Space |url=http://hyperallergic.com/249791/squeak-carnwaths-guilt-free-zone-is-our-space/ |newspaper=Hyperallergic.com }} Reflecting on the painting What White Is,{{Cite web|url=http://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection-item/a953|title=What White Is|website=Oakland Museum of California}} Tsujimoto writes "Carnwath has produced a visual analogy of humankind's attempt to impose structure and order on unruly meaning."

= Song paintings =

As a continuation of her list-making practice, Carnwath produced a series of paintings containing song titles set in blocks of color starting around 2014. Read as a text, the song titles provide a perspective on contemporary music, personal taste, and the way songs can be connected or arranged to create new meaning. In an Art in America review, critic Tatiana Istomina stated "the found poetry of individual song titles accumulates to powerful effect. In Girls (2015), for example, the titles painted in various shades of pink, red and purple reflect many different aspects of gender, from innate character to performative identity to social function: "I Was Born This Way," "Bang Bang,""Piece of My Heart,""I Am Woman."{{Cite news|url=http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/squeak-carnwath/|title=Squeak Carnwath|last=Istomina|first=Tatiana|date=2016-01-06|work=Art in America|access-date=2016-01-06}}

Teaching

From 1983 to 1998, Carnwath was Professor of Art at the University of California, Davis. During this time, the art department faculty included Wayne Thiebaud, Mike Henderson, Manuel Neri, Roland Petersen, and Lynn Hershman Leeson, among others.{{cite web|title=Art Studio Emeritus Faculty|url=http://arts.ucdavis.edu/art-studio-emeritus-faculty|website=UC Davis Arts|access-date=30 March 2018}}

In 1998, Carnwath moved from the UC Davis campus to UC Berkeley. There, her colleagues included Craig Nagasawa, Katherine Sherwood, Richard Shaw and Randy Hussong, among others. She retired in 2010.{{cite web|title=Emeriti, Practice of Art|url=http://art.berkeley.edu/people-category/emeriti/|website=UC Berkeley|access-date=30 March 2018}} She taught at the University of California, Berkeley from 1982 until 2010,{{cite web |title=Squeak Carnwath, Emerita: Practice of Art |url=http://art.berkeley.edu/people/squeak-carnwath-professor-emeritus/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203133440/https://art.berkeley.edu/people/squeak-carnwath-professor-emeritus/ |archive-date=February 3, 2019 |access-date=2018-03-23 |website=Practice of Art, University of California, Berkeley}} having previously taught at California College of Arts and Crafts and Ohlone College.

Solo exhibitions

2022: Pattern Language, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York City, New York{{cite web |title=Squeak Carnwath: Pattern Language |url=https://www.janelombardgallery.com/pattern-language |website=Jane Lombard Gallery |access-date=26 January 2023}}
2020: Unveiling Territory, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, Washington{{cite web |title=Squeak Carnwath: Unveiling Territory |url=https://jamesharrisgallery.com/exhibitions/squeak-carnwath-unveiling-territory |website=James Harris Gallery |access-date=26 January 2023}}
2019: Not All Black and White, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York{{cite web |title=Squeak Carnwath: Not All Black and White |url=https://www.janelombardgallery.com/notallblackandwhite |website=Jane Lombard Gallery |access-date=26 January 2023}}
2019: Squeak Carnwath: How the Mind Works, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California{{cite web |title=Squeak Carnwath: How the Mind Works |url=https://arts.pepperdine.edu/museum/2018-2019/squeak-carnwath.htm |website=Pepperdine University |access-date=1 November 2019}}
2016: Everyday is Not the Same: Squeak Carnwath's Prints and Papers, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, Oregon{{cite web|title=Everyday is not the Same: Squeak Carnwath's Prints and Papers|url=https://jsma.uoregon.edu/SqueakCarnwath|website=Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art|access-date=30 March 2018}}
2016: Crazy Papers and Sister Objects, American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C.{{cite web|title=Squeak Carnwath: Crazy Papers and Sister Objects|url=https://www.american.edu/cas/museum/2016/crazy-papers.cfm|website=American University Museum|access-date=30 March 2018}}
2015: What Before Comes After, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York, New York{{cite web|title=Squeak Carnwath: What Before Comes After|url=http://www.janelombardgallery.com/squeak/|website=Jane Lombard Gallery|access-date=30 March 2018}}
2011: Squeak Carnwath: All Thought and Pleasure, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California{{cite web|title=Squeak Carnwath: All Thought and Pleasure|url=http://www.tritonmuseum.org/exhibitions_Carnwath.php|website=Triton Museum of Art|access-date=30 March 2018}}
2009: Squeak Carnwath: Painting Is No Ordinary Object, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California{{cite web|title=Squeak Carnwath: Painting is No Ordinary Object|url=http://museumca.org/exhibit/squeak-carnwath-painting-no-ordinary-object|website=Oakland Museum of California|access-date=30 March 2018}}
2004: Squeak Carnwath Being Human: Paintings & Prints, Olin Art Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
2000: Squeak Carnwath, David Beitzel Gallery, New York City, New York{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
1998: Squeak Carnwath: Seeing in the Dark, California Museum of Art, Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, California{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
1986: Squeak Carnwath: New Paintings and Works on Paper, Van Straaten Gallery, Chicago, Illinois{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
1984: Squeak Carnwath: Paintings, Getler/Pall/Saper Gallery, New York City, New York{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
1982: Squeak Carnwath, Hansen Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, California{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
1980: Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award 1980, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California{{cite web|title=SECA Award Winners 1967-2012|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/get-involved/membership/seca/seca-award-winners/|website=SFMoMA|access-date=30 March 2018}}

Group exhibitions

2020: Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania{{cite web |title=Taking Space |url=https://www.pafa.org/museum/exhibitions/taking-space |website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts |access-date=26 January 2023}}
2019: Building a Different Model: Selections From the di Rosa Collection, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, California{{cite web |title=Building a Different Model: Selections From the di Rosa Collection |url=http://www.dirosaart.org/building-a-different-model-2/ |website=di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art|access-date=1 November 2019}}
2018: Rise Up! Social Justice in Art From the Collection of J. Michael Bewley, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California{{cite web |title=Rise Up! Social Justice in Art From the Collection of J. Michael Bewley |url=https://sjmusart.org/exhibition/rise-social-justice-art-collection-j-michael-bewley |website=San Jose Museum of Art|access-date=1 November 2019}}
2017: Color and Pattern, Pivot Art + Culture, Seattle, Washington{{cite web|last1=Faigin|first1=Gary|title=Review: Who knew? Paul Allen Collection does abstraction at Pivot Art + Culture|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/visual-arts/review-who-knew-paul-allen-collection-does-abstraction-at-pivot-art-culture/|website=Seattle Times|access-date=19 April 2018}}
2014: Building Forward, Looking Back, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California{{cite web|title=Building Forward|url=https://www.scu.edu/desaisset/exhibitions/building-forward/|website=de Saisset|access-date=19 April 2018}}
2012: The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania{{cite web|title=The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World|url=https://www.pafa.org/exhibitions/female-gaze-women-artists-making-their-world|website=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts}}
2011: Fifty Years of Bay Area Art – The SECA Awards, SFMOMA, San Francisco, California{{cite web|title=Fifty Years of Bay Area Art|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/fifty-years-of-bay-area-art/|website=SFMOMA|access-date=19 April 2018}}
2010: American Printmaking Now, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (traveling){{cite web|title=American Contemporary Printing Exhibition|url=http://www.namoc.org/en/exhibitions/201305/t20130508_247880.htm|website=National Art Museum of China|access-date=19 April 2018}}
2006: The Missing Peace Project: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, Fowler Museum, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (traveling){{cite web|title=The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama|url=http://www.artworksforchange.org/the-missing-peace-artists-consider-the-dalai-lama-3/|website=Art Works for Change|access-date=19 April 2018}}
2001: Pay Attention…I hope you learned your lesson: Works from the Collection of Laila Twigg-Smith, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i
1997: The Magic of Numbers, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
1997: Bay Area Art from the Morgan Flagg Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California{{cite book|last1=Anglin Burgard|first1=Timothy|title=Bay Area Art From the Morgan Flagg Collection|date=1997|publisher=Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco|isbn=0884010945}}
1995: Abstraction, The Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
1991: Herstory: Narrative Art by Contemporary California Artists, January 12 – March 24, the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California{{cite news|last1=Matthews|first1=Lydia|title=Stories History Didn't Tell Us|issue=6|publisher=Artweek|date=14 February 1991}}
1987: The Third Western States Biennial, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas (traveling){{cite web|title=Third Western States Exhibition|url=http://artmuseumofsouthtexas.org/View/ExhibitDetails/tabid/164/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/439/Third-Western-States-Exhibition.aspx|website=Art Museum of South Texas|access-date=19 April 2018}}
1982: From the Sunny Side: Six East Bay Artists, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, California{{cite news|last1=Albright|first1=Thomas|title=Emerging, Diverging, and Submerging at Oakland Museum|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle}}
1982: Emerging Northern California Artists, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, California{{cite web|url=http://www.occca.org/1982.html|title=OCCCA 1982|website=Orange County Center for Contemporary Art|access-date=19 April 2018}}