Eleanor Antin

(American, born 1935)

Eleanor Antin is an American performance artist, filmmaker, and installation artist who started her career as an actress. She studied at the City College of New York, graduating with a degree in 1958 before moving to San Diego in 1969. By delving into history, Antin explores the present in her work. She takes on the roles of numerous alter egos in her work, and often blurs the lines between her characters and her identity, breaking the boundaries between art, performance, and life. Antin also works across the media of painting, sculpture, and photography, and is especially known for her large-scale photographic tableaux that look to art history for inspiration to reflect on contemporary problems. Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Tate Modern. Antin lives and works in San Diego.