Maren Hassinger facts for kids

Maren Hassinger (born Maren Louise Jenkins in 1947) is an African-American artist and teacher. She has been making art for over forty years. Hassinger uses different art forms like sculpture, film, dance, performance art, and public art. She explores how nature and man-made materials connect. She often uses everyday items in her art, such as wire rope, plastic bags, branches, dirt, newspaper, and cardboard boxes. Hassinger wants her art to show how we are all connected. She also wants it to highlight shared social and environmental issues. She first trained in dance, then started making sculptures and visual art in college. Hassinger earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from UCLA in 1973. For ten years, she was the director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Today, she lives and works in New York City.

Early Life and Art Beginnings

Maren Louise Jenkins was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1947. Her mother, Helen Mills Jenkins, was a police officer and teacher. Her father, Carey Kenneth Jenkins, was an architect. From a young age, Maren was good at art. She saw her mother's interest in flower arranging and her father's work at his drafting table. These experiences helped shape her artistic journey.

Education and Artistic Growth

In 1965, Maren Hassinger started at Bennington College. She wanted to study dance but was not accepted into the dance program. Instead, she studied sculpture with Issac Witkin and drawing with Pat Adams. She graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sculpture. Even though she didn't study dance, she found ways to include dance ideas in her sculptures.

During her time at Bennington College, it was an all-women's school. Most of the teachers were men who had connections to art galleries in New York City. Hassinger felt that the art lessons were not always connected to what students experienced. She decided to create her own style, even though she learned important skills like repetition and arrangement from the art styles of the time.

In 1969, she moved to New York City. She took drafting classes and worked as an art editor at a publishing company. She helped include images of African Americans in textbooks. She married Peter Hassinger and moved back to Los Angeles with him in 1970. She then earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in fiber from UCLA in 1973.

Art Career and Inspirations

Maren Hassinger began experimenting with art while studying at UCLA in the early 1970s. She found industrial wire rope in a junkyard in Los Angeles. She realized she could use this material to make sculptures that looked like plants. This became a special material she often used. During this time, Hassinger also started working with sculptor Senga Nengudi. Their friendship grew while they both worked as artists for a government-funded program. This program helped Hassinger create her artwork Twelve Trees #2 in 1979.

Hassinger was also part of an art group in Los Angeles called Studio Z. This group included other artists like Senga Nengudi and David Hammons.

The writer Walker Percy influenced Hassinger's ideas about nature and man-made things. His books often explored how modern life was moving away from nature. Another artist who inspired her was Eva Hesse. In 1973, Hassinger saw Hesse's sculptures and admired how she explored shapes and techniques. She felt Hesse's art showed deep emotion. Hassinger said it was like looking at someone's spirit made real.

Dance and Performance Art

Maren Hassinger loved dance since she was five years old and hoped to have a career in it. After not getting into the dance program at Bennington, she chose to study fine arts, especially sculpture. She found ways to bring her love for dance into her art through performance art. She also worked with her friend Senga Nengudi. Their friendship led to a shared interest in dance, sculpture, and performance art. Together, they created works like Get Up and R.S.V.P. Performance Piece.

Hassinger and Nengudi's joint works combined sculpture and performance. They were considered very new and exciting because they mixed sculpture, dance, theater, and music. They also brought people together, like community meetings, and had the energy of modern art events. Hassinger also uses everyday movements in her dance performances.

In 2006, Hassinger wrote a "Manifesto" about her work with Nengudi. Nengudi wrote a response in 2009 called "Maren and Me." Both essays showed their strong bond and how they inspired each other. Hassinger's love of dance has always influenced how she understands and creates art. Even though many of their early works from the 1970s are gone, Hassinger and Nengudi still work together. For example, Hassinger performed with Nengudi's sculpture R.S.V.P.X as recently as 2014.

Hassinger has said that for her, performance art is about communication. It's like taking your art ideas and putting them into your body, letting your body move. She sees it as a way to extend her artistic thoughts.

Film and Video Art

Maren Hassinger has also made films and videos. In these moving images, she explores her family's history and personal interactions. She looks at themes of identity. Her daughter, Ava Hassinger, is also an artist. They made a video together called "Matriarch," where they performed improvised dances. In 2004, Hassinger created Daily Mask, a film that shows her personal story. It also connects to African history through art and feminist ideas.

Art Themes and Messages

Some people describe Hassinger's art as "ecological," meaning it's about nature and the environment. However, Hassinger herself sees her work as more about people. She wants to make statements about society and what we all have in common. She shows how cultural stereotypes are not helpful because they create barriers between people. She wants to highlight the similarities that exist between everyone. Hassinger also strongly believes in having conversations about race and gender.

She has addressed issues of equality in works like Love. This artwork is made of hundreds of pink plastic bags, each holding a love note. Pieces like this show how she can create beauty and talk about important social themes using simple, everyday materials.

Later Career and Recognition

From 1984 to 1985, Hassinger was an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. In the 1980s, the League of Allied Arts honored several Black artists, including Hassinger, at a musical event. The League of Allied Arts is the oldest Black women's arts organization in Los Angeles.

From 1997 until 2017, she was the Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hassinger also taught as a professor at Stony Brook University for five years.

Art Collections

Maren Hassinger's artworks are kept in many important art collections. These include:

• Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
• Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD
• California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
• Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR
• The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
• Williams College Art Museum, Williamstown, MA
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Selected Artworks

• Untitled (Sea Anemone), 1971
• Untitled, 1972/ 2020
• Tree Duet I, 1977/ 2021
• Tree Duet II, 1977/ 2021
• Walking, 1978
• Twelve Trees #2, 1979/ 2015
• Leaning, 1980
• On Dangerous Ground, 1981
• Pink Trash, 1982
• Necklace of Trees, 1985-85
• Field/Oasis, 1987
• Bushes at Socrates Sculpture Park, 1988
• Plaza Planters and Tree Grates, 1986–90
• Field, 1989
• Tall Grasses, 1989-90
• Circle of Bushes, 1991
• Cloud Room, 1992
• Evening Shadows, 1993
• Window Boxes, 1993
• Fence of Leaves, 1995
• Ancestor Walk, 1996
• Consolation, 1996
• Place of Bliss, 2001
• Daily Mask, 1997-2004
• Art in the Garden, 2004-5
• Rivers, 2007
• Love Square, 2008/2025
• Sit Upons, 2010
• Whole Cloth, 2017
• Monument 1 (Corner #1), 2018/ 2020
• Tree of Knowledge, 2019
• Monument, 2020
• Paradise Regained, 2020
• Garden, 2020
• And a River Runs Through It, 2020
• Untitled Vessel (Large Body), 2021
• Untitled Vessel (Small Body), 2021
• Untitled Vessel (Beige), 2021
• Window, 2021
• Vessel 1, 2022
• Vessel 2, 2022/ 2024
• Vessel 7, 2022
• Vessel 5, 2022
• Vessel 8, 2022
• Eden 2, 2023
• Eden 3, 2023
• Eden 6, 2023
• Eden 10, 2023
• Vessel 5 (Rope and Wire), 2023
• Vessel 7 and 8 (Rope and Wire), 2023
• Rose Leaf Composition, 2025
• Growing II, 2025
• Wall Composition II, 2025
• Wall Composition III, 2025
• Falls II, 2025
• Cascade, 2025

In 1998, a subway station in New York City, the Central Park North – 110th Street (IRT Lenox Avenue Line) station, installed a work by Hassinger. It is called Message from Malcolm. This artwork has mosaic panels with quotes and writings by Malcolm X.

Awards and Honors

Maren Hassinger has received several awards for her art, including:

• Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, Maryland Institute College of Art (2009)
• Grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation (1996)
• Anonymous Was A Woman Award (1997)
• Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2007)

Solo Art Exhibitions

Maren Hassinger's art has been shown in many solo exhibitions, where only her work is featured. Some of these include:

• Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, OR, Las Vegas Ikebana: Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi (2024)
• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Maren Hassinger: This Is How We Grow (2023-2024)
• Oklahoma Contemporary Nature, Sweet Nature (2021)
• The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY., Maren Hassinger: Monuments, (2018-2019). These were special artworks placed in Marcus Garvey Park.
• Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Maren Hassinger: A Retrospective (2015)
• Reginald Ingraham Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA Maren Hassinger (2014)
• Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Maren Hassinger . . . Dreaming (2013)
• Schmucker Gallery, Gettysburg, PA, USA Maren Hassinger: Lives (2010)
• Contemporary Arts Forum and Alice Keck Park, Santa Barbara, CA., Blanket of Branches and Dancing Branches, (1986)
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA., Gallery Six: Maren Hassinger, (1981)
• Just Above Midtown/Downtown Gallery, New York, NY., Beach, (1980)

Group Art Exhibitions

Maren Hassinger's work has also been part of many group exhibitions, where her art is shown alongside other artists. Some of these include:

• In 2022, the Hammer Museum at University of California, Los Angeles, had an exhibition called Joan Didion: What She Means. Hassinger's art was shown with works by 50 other artists. This show also traveled to the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2023.
• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-85 (2017)
• Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, Texas, USA Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art (2012)
• Havana Biennial, Cinema Remixed and Reloaded 2.0, (2012)
• Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA Now Dig This!: Art of Black Los Angeles 1960 –1980 (2011)
• Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA., Dance/Draw, (2011)
• Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Material Girls: Contemporary Black Women Artists (2011)
• The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY., VideoStudio: Playback, (2011)
• Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Baltimore, MD., Material Girls, (2011)
• Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, Global Africa Project, (2010)
• The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY., 30 Seconds off an Inch, (2009)