Linda Montano
Born in Saugerties, NY in 1942. She studied art at the
College of New Rochelle 1959-60 and 63-65; from 1960 to
1962 she was Maryknoll Sister.
Her studies include Villa
Schifanoia, Florence 1965-66, M.F.A. in sculpture;
University of Wisconsin, Madison 1966-69, M.F.A. in
sculpture; Hobart Welding School, Troy, NY, 1969,
welding degree and Buddhism with Lama Kalu Rimpoche
in 1977. Her pioneering work in performance art began in
1969 with "The Chicken Show," followed by "Dead
Chicken, Live Angel" in 1971 after she had moved to San
Francisco.
Her ex-husband's death by gunshot in 1977 is the
subject of the video, "Mitchell's Death" (1978) in the video
gallery. Montano began "art-life counselling" in 1980.
Perhaps the best known of many performances is "One
Year Performance," for which she spent 1983-84 chained to
the artist Tehching Hsieh. She teaches in the Art
Department at the University of Texas at Austin.
--Drawn from Linda Montano: Profile n.6
(Chicago: Video Data Bank, 1984) and Linda Montano,
Art in Everyday Life(Barrytown, N.Y. and Los Angeles:
Station Hill Press and Astro Artz, 1981).
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