Influenced video artist Dara Birnbaum dies at 78

Your groundbreaking practice has a profound influence on contemporary art and visual culture. In the past five decades, Birnbaum's work has examined the ideological and aesthetic constructs of mass media, the challenging historical memory, the public address and the overcurability of images.

Their groundbreaking works, including Technology/transformation: Wonder Woman (1978–1979), Kiss the girls: let them cry (1979), Transmission tower: Sentinel (1992), arabesque(2011) and Travel: Shadow of the American dream (2022) are widely recognized as fundamental to the history of media art and internationally exhibited at institutions such as the Fondazione Prada Oservatorio, Milan (2023); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2023; also 2008), Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-On-Hudson, New York (2022); Miller Institute of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh (2022), Moma PS1, New York (2019); National Portrait Gallery, London (2018); Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio (2018), including.

Large retrospectives and surveys of their work were presented in the Belvedere Palace, Vienna (2024). Prada Aoyama, Tokyo (2023); Fondazione Prada Oservatorio, Milan (2023); Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (2022); Miller Institute of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh (2022); Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2010) and Smak Stedelijk Museum Voor Actuele Art, Ghent, Belgium (2009). Your work was exhibited in Documenta 7, 8 and 9.

The New York Times wrote about her work in the Hessel Museum of Art in 2022:
“Visitors could see how groundbreaking their video art was, in particular their appropriation and processing of film material from television, film and internet, to ask questions about gender and politics. Her most famous work from the 1970s, isolated and repeatedly brackets by actress Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman to create a writty criticism.”

Birnbaum's practice continues to vibrate, especially in a media -saturated world, and its legacy remains an influence and influence for new generations of artists worldwide for new generations of artists, scientists and cultural thinkers.

Main picture: Portrait of Dara Birnbaum at Fondazione Prada. Photo: Francesca d'Amico