Kate Manheim: Self portrait of the artist with sinus trouble, 1988-89

Kate Manheim is an American visual artist and actress based in New York. She has been painting since the 1990s.[1]

Personal life

Manheim was born in 1945 in the Bronx, New York City,[2] the daughter of the German Jewish translator Ralph Manheim.[3] She spent much of her childhood in France.[4] At a young age she studied painting at “Academie de Jedui” run by the Swiss artist Arno Stern, and participated in sketching sessions at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere.[5] She returned to the United States in 1969 and began teaching French and English at Berlitz. She met experimental theatre director Richard Foreman in 1971, after which time she collaborated with him on stage productions until 1987. Manheim also translated Foreman's plays into French for productions in Paris. In addition to acting, Manheim continued her interest in painting through the 1980s.[2]

Manheim began living with Foreman in 1972. The two are now married.

Career

Prior to working with Richard Foreman, Manheim had very little acting experience.[6][2] Her first stage appearance was in Foreman's 1972 play Hotel China.[7] Following her stage debut, she collaborated frequently with Foreman, as well as Jean Jourdheuil, Jean-Francois Peyret and filmmaker Jack Smith, acting in many roles in New York and Paris’ avant-garde theater scenes.[5]

Manheim was the lead actress in most of Foreman's theatre works, as well as a number of his films, between 1972 and 1987, frequently playing a character called Rhoda. Her last appearance was in Foreman's 1987 play Film is Evil: Radio is Good. Foreman has stated that his collaborations with Manheim had a strong influence on the development of his work.

The introduction of such playfulness and fantasy was also due to the influence of Kate Manheim, who was the leading performer in these plays for many years. Simply put, Kate is a more playful person than I, and it was she who wanted to do playful things onstage. It interested her to take off her clothes, to be shocking and provocative in performance, which not only funneled much erotic imagery directly into the work, but also encouraged its broader free play and inventiveness.[8]

What's interesting is that she brought something to my work that I would have rejected. She came to America and got hooked on all these television serials that I would never deign to watch. She loved I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners and so forth, and the injection of that kind of energy into my pretensions of rarefied intellectual art has been tremendously healthy.[2]

Manheim also influenced Foreman's use of real spoken dialogue in his plays, rather than the pre-recorded dialogue used in his early work.[2]

Kate Manheim in Richard Foreman's Egyptology, 1983

In a 1987 interview, Manheim described her work with Foreman as deeply collaborative, but also emotionally fraught.

When I started working for [Richard Foreman] I was in a position where I did everything I was told. I did not question that--at the time. Now I'm in a position where I systematically refuse to do anything I'm told. Of course, Richard's still the director...My contribution vanishes. Richard still has a written text that can be published. I have nothing. Furthermore, I've just been living through hell for the last five months. Every day I go to a place of work where all I can do is disagree with everything that's being done. I don't get along with Richard very well, I don't get along with the other actors. And now I find myself crying most of the day, waiting for the performance. I sort of pull myself together to do the play because somewhere in myself I'm reliable...Even though a play like [Film is Evil: Radio is Good] just wouldn't have existed if I hadn't been around...I used to say that these plays were soap operas of the life of Richard Foreman and Kate Manheim. They are very autobiographical, even though a lot of it we don't think of, it's just there in the texture of it, in the words. So I just kept at Richard to make it mold to my unconscious of the moment.[6]

Manheim left acting in 1987 to return to her career as a visual artist, enrolling at the Cooper Union in New York.[5] She has since created over 600 paintings.[3] The composer John Zorn wrote that Manheim's paintings “speak to the human psyche directly in languages both angelic and demonic.”[9]

Manheim's work has been widely exhibited. She had a solo exhibition curated by John Zorn at the Cue Foundation, New York in 2008, and a solo exhibition at Anthology Film Archives’ Court House Gallery in 1996,[5] which featured a lifetime's work of artwork from childhood paintings of Christ to the "grief portraits" of her mother who died in 1985.[3] Her work was included in ‘Looking Back: The Third White Columns Annual’ selected by curator Jay Sanders in 2008 at White Columns, a gallery in New York City. In 2015, Manheim had a solo exhibition at White Columns.[5] Her work was included in the group exhibitions Weathering at Kai Matsumiya in New York (2022) and You've Got To Be Here! at Galeria lokal_30 in Warsaw, Poland.[10]

Acting Credits

Theatre

All works written and directed by Richard Foreman unless otherwise specified.

  • HcOhTiEnLa (or) Hotel China, New York City (1971)[11]
  • Sophia= (Wisdom) Part 3: The Cliffs, New York City (1972)[11]
  • Particle Theory, New York City (1973)[12]
  • Pain(t), New York City (1974)[11]
  • Pandering to the Masses: A Misrepresentation, New York City (1975)[13]
  • Rhoda in Potatoland (Her Fall-Starts), New York City (1975)
  • Livre des Splendeurs: Part One, Paris (1976)[14]
  • Book of Splendors: Part Two (Book of Levers) Action at a Distance, New York City (1977)[15]
  • Blvd. de Paris (I've Got the Shakes), New York City (1977)[16]
  • Penguin Touquet, New York City (1981)[8]
  • Café Amérique, Paris (1981)[17]
  • Three Acts of Recognition by Botho Strauss, dir. Richard Foreman, Paris (1982)[6]
  • Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights by Gertrude Stein, dir. Richard Foreman, Paris (1982)[18]
  • Egyptology, New York City (1983)[19]
  • La Robe de Chambre de Georges Bataille, Paris (1983)[20]
  • Medea by Heiner Müller, dir. Jean Jourdheuil, Theatre de l'Odéon, Paris (1983)[6]
  • The Birth of the Poet by Kathy Acker, dir. Richard Foreman, Rotterdam (1983)[6]
  • My Life, My Death by Pier Paolo Pagolini by Kathy Acker, dir. Richard Foreman, Paris (1984)[6]
  • The Park by Botho Strauss, dir. Claude Regie, Paris (1985)[6]
  • The Cure, New York City (1986)[8]
  • Film Is Evil: Radio Is Good, New York City (1987)[8]

Film

  • Paul, 1969, dir. Diourka Medveczky
  • 'Rameau's Nephew' by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen, 1974, dir. Michael Snow

References

  1. ↑ "Zalle, David. "Kate Manheim."BOMB Magazine #95: Artists on Artists Issue, April 1, 2001". April 2006.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ellen. August 16, 1983. "Kate Manheim: I Don't Need No Teacher." Village Voice. https://archive.org/details/village-voice-kate-manheim/title=Rapp, Ellen. August 16, 1983. "Kate Manheim: I Don't Need No Teacher." Village Voice. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. 1 2 3 "Kate Manheim". cueartfoundation.org. 2008.
  4. ↑ Swettenham, Neal (2017). Richard Foreman: An American (Partly) in Paris. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1351594967.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Press Release. White Columns. 2015".
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Schechner, Richard and Kate Manheim. "Talking with Kate Manheim: Unpeeling a Few Layers: An Interview." MIT Press, The Drama Review: TDR , Winter, 1987, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter, 1987), pp. 136- 142". JSTOR 1145840.
  7. ↑ "Guide to the Richard Foreman Papers: 1942-2004 (Bulk 1969-2004) MSS.152. Fales Library and Special Collections. New York University, 2022".
  8. 1 2 3 4 Foreman, Richard. Unbalancing Acts: Foundations for a Theater. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992, 86-7.
  9. ↑ "Kate Manheim". 16 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "Kate Manheim: Biography. Mutual Art".
  11. 1 2 3 "Richard Foreman. George Hunka, 2022". 23 November 2022.
  12. ↑ "Florence A. Falk. Physics and the Theatre: Richard Foreman's "Particle Theory". Educational Theatre Journal , Oct., 1977, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Oct., 1977), pp. 395-404". JSTOR 3206185.
  13. ↑ Gussow, Mel (16 January 1975). "Gussow, Mel. Jan 16, 1975. "Stage: Zesty 'Pandering.'" The New York Times". The New York Times.
  14. ↑ "Program for Richard Foreman's Livre des Splendeurs: Part One, Paris, 1976. www.festival-automne.com" (PDF).
  15. ↑ "Foreman, Richard. Book of Splendors: Part II (Book of Levers) Action at a Distance. Theater (1978) 9 (2): 79–89".
  16. ↑ Eder, Richard (24 December 1977). "Eder, Richard. Dec. 24, 1977. "Play of Many Titles Follows Them All." The New York Times". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ "Program for Richard Foreman's Cafe Amerique, Paris, 1981. www.festival-automne.com" (PDF).
  18. ↑ "Savran, David. "Whistling in the Dark." Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan., 1993), pp. 25-27". JSTOR 3245792.
  19. ↑ Rich, Frank (18 May 1983). "Rich, Frank. May 18, 1983. THEATER: 'EGYPTOLOGY' BY RICHARD FOREMAN. The New York Times.". The New York Times.
  20. ↑ "Program for Richard Foreman's La Robe de Chambre de Georges Bataille, Paris, 1983. www.festival-automne.com" (PDF).
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