Patty Mucha

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Patricia Muschinski, (born June 26, 1935) better known under the alias Patty Mucha, is an American artist. She is recognized for her contributions to soft sculpture, her work alongside her ex-husband Claes Oldenburg in creating many of his well known pieces, and her many collaborations and connections with a multitude of other well known artists.

Early life and education

Patty Mucha was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up with five siblings, four of whom are older, and one younger. Growing up, Mucha was influenced by her mother, who made a lot of textile work (embroidery, quilting, knitting, and crocheting), and her siblings. Her older brother largely influenced her and was a commercial artist. He had attended Layton School of Art and Design in Milwaukee. Mucha often attended her older brother's classes alongside him.

Mucha's high school teachers were also very influential in her art, and her experiences there led her to win many awards within her school. She later went on to pursue her education at Wisconsin State Teachers College (now the University of Wisconsin), where she specialized in oil painting, and she studied sculpture, printmaking, and working on a lathe. In 1957, Mucha decided to move to New York where she worked at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and met her now ex-husband, Claes Oldenburg. During that time she also participated in the Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency in Michigan.

Studying ballet for six months, Mucha's participation in this class contributed to her performance art.

Major works

• Mel Dipping (1990) is one of many oil paintings created by the artist. This artwork on a linen canvas shows a duck diving into water.
• In 1961 Mucha and Claes Oldenburg began collaborating on the The Store installation at the Green Gallery in Manhattan, which opened in 1962. In this installation, three large-scale soft sculptures were exhibited; Floor Burger, Floor Cone, and Floor Cake. Before the creation of these pieces, Mucha had a small Singer sewing machine that she brought with her throughout the different stages of her life. During her marriage with Oldenburg, Mucha made use of her sewing skills, and created all the fabric forms of the well known soft sculptures that are often solely attributed to Oldenburg within museums. Her husband painted these sculptures once they were sewn in place. Mucha often brought up important questions and technical problems relating to the artworks and their exhibition, and helped solve these issues. Upon completion of the first soft sculpture they’d collaborated on, Mucha and Oldenburg christened the piece by making love on the meat patty, covered by the bun. In their later soft sculptures, the artists sourced an industrial strength sewing machine in order to create canvas and vinyl artworks. Of the vinyl emerged Mucha's favourite pieces; Soft Pay-Telephone (1963), and Soft Typewriter (1963).
• In 1960 the duo's first collaboration, Snapshots from the City, consisted of a 15 minute performance at the Judson Memorial Church in New York.
• Patty Mucha has worked in collaboration with many other artists such as Alex Hay in the work Rio Grande (1964) as a performer for the work.
• In 1960 Mucha performed for the piece Small Cannon by Robert Whitman.
• In 1960 she performed in Car Crash by Michael Kirby.
• In 1962 Mucha performed alongside many other people in Magiciens Reconsidered 4: The US Films Itself, by Claes Oldenburg and David Byrne, edited in 1971. This piece reflects on the culture of the United States as it became the artists' home during childhood.
• "Tableau Vivant" is a photograph by Robert Scull, in which Mucha is one of the subjects. Although this is not a work that she has contributed to, she has participated in a part of this process.

Exhibitions

Similarly to many other women in fine arts during the Pop Arts movement, Mucha's husband overshadowed her contributions to the work they completed together, therefore many of the pieces she has worked on have been exhibited under Oldenburg's name.

The Store is the main exhibition that brought attention to Mucha's work alongside Oldenburg. Many of the other soft sculptures she has worked on have been exhibited in well known museums such as the Museum of Modern Arts in New York, and the Museum Moderner Kunst in Vienna for example.

Later in her life Mucha worked at an organization called Catamount Arts, where some of her work was exhibited.

Personal life

Married to Claes Oldenburg in 1960, and divorced in 1970, Mucha first met her ex-husband in New York City in an art store while buying supplies. Mucha had known of him before they met thanks to her roommate who had been Oldenburg's ex-girlfriend. Mucha became one of Oldenburg's nude models for his painting portraits, and later she became the muse for a few artworks. She modeled for Oldenburg's last painting, Girl with Fur Piece, Portrait of Pat.

Throughout her life, Mucha created a lot of connections with many well known figures including Alex Hay, Andy Warhol, Dick Higgins, Jean Dupuy, Jim Dine, Red Grooms, Robert Whitman, Ruby Burckhardt, Sally Gross, Simone Forti, and Steve Paxton, many with whom she has collaborated, or contributed to pieces either through work or participation as a subject.

Mucha now lives near St. Johnsbury, Vermont where she paints, farms, and is currently working on her unfinished memoir Clean Slate: My life in the 1960s New York Art World.

References

This article "Patty Mucha" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Patty Mucha. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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