Eleanor Antin

Eleanor Antin (born Eleanora Antinova) is an American artist, best known for her pioneering work in various media since the 1960s, including photography, performance, film, and installation. Antin was born in New York City in 1935 and raised in the Bronx. She received her B.A. in Art History from the City College of New York in 1958 and her M.A. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in 1963. Antin is widely credited with creating the first "body art" performance in 1971, when she assumed the persona of a Russian immigrant named Eleanora Antinova and documented her journey from New York to California in her seminal work, The Adventures of a Nurse. Drawing influence from the Theater of the Absurd, Antin created a character and narrative to explore identity and the the complexities of immigration. She has since used a variety of characters to explore social issues, including a king, a nurse, and a ballerina. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Antin began producing photographic works, drawings, and films that explored the female identity. Her series, 100 Boots, documents the journey of a pair