Artist Birthday: Eleanor Antin (born 1935 US)

Eleanor Antin is a performance artist, filmmaker, conceptualist artist and college professor. Her body of work dates back to the early days of the Women’s Art Movement of the early 1970s. Her pieces delve into history of numerous world cultures.

Artist Birthday for 27 February: Eleanor Antin (born 1935 US)

Eleanor Antin, Portrait of Antinova, 1986, installation with 35mm film   Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, © 2026 Eleanor Antin (ART21EA-52)

Antin has masqueraded in many roles in her performances and videos, ostensibly to expose the many sides of her own personality. Her most famous, and frequently performed, persona is that of Eleanora Antinova, a tragically overlooked black ballerina from the Ballets Russes of the early 1900s. Appearing in numerous scripted and non-scripted performances as Antinova, Antin has blurred the distinction between her identity and that of her character. We see Antin’s own face in the dressing room mirror of this installation. This is part of a rich body of work detailing the real-life ballerina, which includes a fictitious memoir and numerous films, photographs, performances, and drawings.

Background

The young counterculture of the 1960s challenged the values and policies of the a male-dominated, capitalist nature of the Western art world. Art movements of the period began to reflect the collapse of mainstream American art, which had been dominated by Abstract Expressionism. The period also marked the beginning of the Women's Art Movement. The 1972 formation of the Women’s Caucus for Art gave women provided a forum to explore for exploring issues surrounding of women artists and art history. The newfound confidence moved women artists to work in radical styles, media, and subject matter previously considered "improper" for women. One of the art forms previously dominated by men was performance and installation art.  Eleanor Antin’s work is a prototype for women who work in performance art.

Antin was born Eleanor Fineman in New York and studied art, drama, and philosophy in college. She spent two years as a professional actress on stage and television (1955-1958). Her varied educational background is reflected in her body of work. Her earliest work included Dada-like paintings, installations of everyday household products, videotaped performances, and photographed “roguish novels.”

Antin delves into the history of numerous periods or into her own Jewish heritage and Yiddish culture. This kind of work is reminiscent of the Dada happenings staged in the early 1920s, but, unlike Dada, Antin’s work is not “anti-art,” but rather it is an attempt to create a unique artistic statement.

Correlation to Davis program: Davis Collections – Jewish Artists