Suzi Ferrer
Suzi Ferrer (born Susan Nudelman on May 24, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) was a visual artist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico from the mid-1960s to 1975. She is known for her transgressive, irreverent, avant-garde and feminist work.[1]
Biography
Suzi was the eldest daughter of Ruth Epstein Susser and Samuel Nudelman, both second generation Austrian, Polish and Belarusian Jewish immigrants. Sasha, as her family called her, graduated from Jamaica High School, New York, in 1958, where she excelled and was active in the drama department. Her main interest was acting and she hoped to make a career in television.[1]
In the summer of 1958, Nudelman enrolled in the Fine Arts program at Cornell University, graduating in 1962. She exhibited her work at the Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art (now the Herbert F. Johnson Museum) and the Franklin Gallery, both on the university campus. While at Cornell, she also continued acting, appearing in several campus plays as well as a brief stint on Broadway in The Pajama Game in 1959.[2]
After graduating, Sasha married Puerto Rican Miguel A. Ferrer, whom she met while he was studying for his MBA at Cornell University. They moved to New York City, visiting galleries and buying contemporary art. They lived a nomadic life, traveling between New York and San Juan during the first years of their marriage. With their eldest daughter, Ilena, the Ferrers settled permanently in Puerto Rico in the mid-1960s. Their son, Miguel, was born in Puerto Rico in 1969.[citation needed]
By the mid-1970s, Ferrer stopped producing art and delved into other creative pursuits. She relocated to San Francisco, where she worked as a cultural manager, graphic designer, publicist, and community liaison for the San Francisco Commission on the Arts' Neighborhood Arts Program.[3] She offered workshops on television camera techniques and worked as a consultant for the marketing firm Beyl & Boyd. In the late 1970s, she was hired to do a study of the physics and psychology of color to design the corporate image for the Vancouver Canucks hockey team.[citation needed]
In the early 1980s, she worked at VideoWest, a television channel where she worked as a producer, screenwriter, actress, and director. In 1982, she created and directed the short film for young people Smarkus and Company.[4] In 1990, she received the Humanitas Award for her documentary Destined to Live, which records the recovery of a hundred patients from breast cancer, which she also suffered from.[5] In 1993, she moved with her husband Stephen Goldsmith to Los Angeles and worked as an executive of the Disney Channel and then as director of foreign television production at Warner Bros. About a decade after the initial diagnosis, she relapsed and died in Los Angeles in 2006.[6]
Art
Ferrer's artistic career lasted only ten years, but they were very productive. She participated in five individual exhibitions, more than fifteen collective exhibitions in galleries in New York and San Juan, and three international biennials.[7] Parallel to her artistic career, in the early seventies she began graduate studies in psychology at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. In 1976 she presented her thesis "A Theoretical Discussion of Creative Process and Exploratory Study of the Creative Puerto Rican", in which she interviewed 12 creatives who worked in Puerto Rico to listen to their creative process. That same year, Antonio Molina, art critic for the newspaper El Mundo, included Ferrer in the artist biographies section in volume VIII of the Gran Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico.
In the 1970s, Ferrer produced drawings, prints and complex, immersive art installations which used acrylic or Plexiglas, as support for her works. Introduced in the 1930s, by the 1960s Plexiglas was being employed by contemporary artists internationally as a material that inherently referenced that moment in time.[8] Furthermore, Plexiglas’ transparency provided an eloquent visual for Ferrer’s images, whose composition was designed to be overlayed with other drawings or illustrated panels, so they can be jostled together and seen simultaneously through transparent layers. This illusion creates an interesting play between the apparent depth in the composition versus the flatness of the drawing. In addition, because Plexiglas is slightly reflective, viewers perceive their own reflection, implicating their bodies as part of the work and adding another layer of an imaged human body. Viewers can also see through Plexiglas layers, potentially perceiving other bodies behind the images.[9]
Ferrer used drawing as an act of defiance against conventional imagery of the body, sexuality, and desire. Like other female artists of the time, Ferrer’s work became figurative, with deliberate breast, vaginal, and penile imagery, exploring female empowerment, gender roles, female desire, and pleasure. Pop art became the ideal platform for navigating these issues: Ferrer juxtaposed comic book superhero images, catechism textbook illustrations, drawings from Chris Foss’s The Joy of Sex, illustrations by children’s author Richard Scarry, and art-historical references to create images critical of patriarchal society. Her complex and critical images flipped the canon and focused on the female gaze — a women’s desiring gaze on a male object of sexual desire — thereby celebrating self-assured femininity.[1]
Almost fifty years after her pieces were first exhibited in galleries in Puerto Rico, art historian Melissa M. Ramos Borges organized and curated the first retrospective of the artist.[10] With the title Suzi Ferrer, the exhibition opened in September 2021 at the Miramar Museum of Art and Design (MADMi).[11]
Individual exhibitions
2021 Suzi Ferrer, retrospective exhibit curated by Melissa M. Ramos Borges, Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar (MADMi), San Juan, Puerto Rico.[11]
1975 WestBroadway Gallery, New York.[12]
1973 WestBroadway Gallery, New York.[13]
1971 Plarotics, La Casa del Arte, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1969 La Casa del Arte, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.[14]
1966 La Casa del Arte, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.[15]
Collective exhibitions
2021 Anarquía y dialéctica en el deseo: géneros y marginalidad en Puerto Rico - Parte I, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, Santurce.[16]
1980 Grabados Puertorriqueños de la ESSO Standard Oil Company, Biblioteca del Colegio Regional de Arecibo.
1976 Colectiva Gráfica Latinoamericana, Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte (MHAA), Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras
1975 Dibujo y collage, Centro Nacional de las Artes, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1974 Inaugural exhibition, Centro Nacional de las Artes, Viejo San Juan, Puerto
Mujeres Puertorriqueñas, La Galería, Viejo San Juan
Puerto Rican Prints, organized by the Pratt Graphic Center, New York.
1973 Primavera, Galería Colibrí, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico[17]
New York Artists WestBroadway, Rundetårn, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Puerto Rican Prints: An Exxon Collection, traveling show[18]
Puerto Rican Prints, Galería Colibrí, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico Housatonic Museum of Art, Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, Connecticut
1969 Puerto Rican Art, New York[vague]
1968 Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte (MHAA), Universidad de Puerto Rico
1966 Experimentos serigráficos del taller ICP, Galería Colibrí, Viejo San Juan[19]
1965 Galería Campeche, Ateneo Puertorriqueño
Biennials
1974 3ra Bienal del Grabado Latinoamericano de San Juan, Convento de los Dominicos, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico
1973 XII Bienal de São Paulo, Puerto Rican delegation, Brasil[20]
1972 IX Biennale Internationale d'Art de Menton, France[21]
2nda Bienal del Grabado Latinoamericano de San Juan, Convento de los Dominicos
Collections
- Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña
- ESSO Standard Oil Collection
- EXXON
- MHAA[22]
- MADMi
Distinctions
Ganadora - medio gráfico, IBEC, 1967.[23]
10 Best Dressed Women in Puerto Rico, The San Juan Star, 1968.
10 Best Dressed Women in Puerto Rico, The San Juan Star, 1969[24]
Special Award Winner, 15th Annual Humanitas Prize, 1990[25]
Selected publications
Bloch, Peter. Painting and Sculpture of Puerto Ricans. New York: Plus Ultra Educational Publishers, 1978. (includes several black and white plates of Suzi Ferrer's work)
Fernández, Jesse. "Installations at the Colibrí." The San Juan Star, May 27, 1973, 14-15. (includes plates and description of her 1973 installation Portrait in Six Dimensions)
Fernández Méndez, Eugenio y Manuel Cárdenas Ruiz. "‘Instalaciones’ Del Mundo Absurdo En La Colibrí." Avance, June 18 1973, 44-44. (includes plates and description of her 1973 installation Portrait in Six Dimensions)
Fullana Acosta, Mariela. "Redescubriendo el arte y la vida de Suzi Ferrer." El Nuevo Día, October 12 2021. (Review published in Puerto Rican newspaper of 2021 retrospective exhibition at Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar)
López Pérez, Stephanie. "Suzi Ferrer: Deconstruye estereotipos a través del arte feminista Archived 2011-05-19 at the Wayback Machine." 90 Grados, 18 September 2021. (Review in digital Puerto Rican publication of 2021 retrospective exhibition at Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar)
Molina, Antonio. "Fichero Biográfico." In Gran Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico, edited by Vicente Báez. Madrid: Ediciones R, September 1976. (includes several black and white and color plates of Ferrer's work)
———. "¿Manifesto De Arte U Obra Feminista?" El Mundo, June 19 1973, 11A. (Review of installation 'Portrait in Six Dimensions' when first exhibited in the Galería Colibrí in 1973)
Pérez González, Aisha. "Arte, Vanguardia y Feminismo: Vida y Obra de Suzi Ferrer." B.A., Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras, 2018.
Ramos Borges, Melissa M. "Omisión O Censura: Una Revisión De La Vanguardia Artística En Puerto Rico, 1960-1970." Ph. D., Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2019. (First comprehensive study of avant garde art in Puerto Rico, contextualizes Ferrer's work with her contemporaries working on the island)
———. "Unos Comentarios En Torno a La Obra Experimental De Suzi Ferrer." Paper presented at the VIII Coloquio de investigación de historia de las mujeres: Mujer en las artes, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Utuado Campus, March 20 2019. (Author analyses installation 'Portrait in Six Dimmensions' using Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex as theoretical framework)
Rodríguez, Jorge. "Suzi Ferrer y el desafío al convencionalismo fememino." El Vocero, September 21 2021. (Review published in Puerto Rican newspaper of 2021 retrospective exhibition at Museo de Arte y Diseño de Miramar)
Ruiz de la Mata, Ernesto Jaime. "Suzi Ferrer." The San Juan Star, September 19 1971, 10-11. (published text is an interview with Ferrer, with several black and white plates of her work)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ramos Borges, Melissa M. (June 2021). "Lost and Found: Assessments of Suzi Ferrer's Decade-Long Career in Puerto Rico". Vision Doble. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ Belsky, Elizabeth R. (May 8, 1959). "Octagon Plans Musical Shoe For Weekend". The Cornell Daily Sun.
- ↑ Maldonado, Penny (June 13, 1975). "Suzi Ferrer — Arts Spokesperson for the City of San Francisco". The San Juan Star.
- ↑ "Smarkus & Company". Letter Boxd. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ↑ Brennan, Patricia (June 11, 1989). "Linda Otto's Optimistic Special, 'Destined to Live'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "TV writer/producer Sasha Ferrer dead". UPI. United Press International, Inc. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ Ramos Borges, Melissa M. (September 2021). "Suzi Ferrer: A Woman's Work". MADMi.
- ↑ Atkinson, Tracy (1969). A Plastic Presence. Milwaukee Art Center. Search this book on
- ↑ Ramos Borges, Melissa M. (September 2021). Suzi Ferrer: A Woman's Work. MADMi. Search this book on
- ↑ Sánchez, Joaquín Jesús. "Critics Pick - Suzi Ferrer at MADMi". Art Forum. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Suzi Ferrer". MADMi. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "The Westbroadway". The San Juan Star. February 9, 1975.
- ↑ "Suzi Ferrer in New York". The San Juan Star. January 28, 1973.
- ↑ "Suzi Ferrer". Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "Pintura de SUZI FERRER". Museo Historia, Antropología y Arte, UPRRP. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ Torres Arzola, Raquel. "Anarquía y dialéctica en el deseo: géneros y marginalidad en Puerto Rico". Artishock Revista de Arte Contemporáneo. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "Primavera". Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "La colección gráfica ESSO de Puerto Rico". ICAA Documents. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "La estampa serigráfica en Puerto Rico". ISSUU. Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "12a Bienal de São Paulo". ISSUU. Bienal de São Paulo. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "IX Biennale Internationale d'Art de Menton". Google Books. 1972.
- ↑ "Carteles Suzi Ferrer". MHAA. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
- ↑ "Exposición Arte Ibec Premia 5 Participantes". El Mundo. October 27, 1967.
- ↑ Maldonado, Penny (December 19, 1969). "Best Dressed Women Honored at a Cocktail Party". The San Juan Star.
- ↑ Haithman, Diane (7 July 1989). "ABC, CBS Top Humanitas Prize Winners". LA Times. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
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- 2006 deaths
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- American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
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