Squeak Carnwath facts for kids

Squeak Carnwath (born 1947) is an American artist. She is known for her unique paintings. She also taught art at the University of California, Berkeley. Squeak has lived and worked in Oakland, California since 1970.

Early Life and Art School

Squeak Carnwath was born in 1947 in Abington, Pennsylvania. She got the nickname "Squeak" as a child, and it just stuck!

After high school, Squeak studied art in different places. She went to schools in Illinois, Greece, and Vermont. Later, she attended the California College of Arts and Crafts. There, she learned about ceramics, painting, and sculpture. She earned her master's degree in fine arts (MFA) from this college in 1977.

What Her Art Is Like

Squeak Carnwath has a special style that is easy to recognize. Her paintings often mix personal stories with big ideas about life. She uses words and pictures on colorful backgrounds. These artworks share her thoughts about society and spiritual topics.

Squeak loves painting the most. She even joked that she is a "painting chauvinist." But she also makes other cool art. She creates prints, woven tapestries, and unique artist books.

Soon after finishing art school, Squeak started getting noticed. She received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1980, she won a SECA Art Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This award led to her own art show at the museum. The show featured a large sculpture called My Own Ghost. She also showed drawings related to this series.

After her big show, Squeak focused on paintings and works on paper. In the early 1980s, her art showed inside rooms, figures, and everyday things. These included cups and vases. She often painted the titles of her works right onto wide borders of the art.

Squeak has received many important awards. In 1994, she won the Guggenheim Fellowship. This is a very respected award for artists. In 2019, she joined the National Academy of Design. This honor recognizes artists who have made big contributions to American culture.

Repeating Symbols in Art

Squeak Carnwath uses special symbols, or "icons," in her art. These symbols have changed over time. But they are always a key part of her paintings. These icons represent different parts of culture and history. They mix Squeak's personal life with big ideas about all people.

Some symbols show time passing. Others represent good luck. Some refer to the body or the mind. But Squeak wants viewers to think for themselves. She likes people to find their own meaning in her art. She once said that the "real information" in her art is often hidden.

In the mid-1980s, Squeak made art based on dog toys. These included balls, bones, and a Kong toy.

Her art style has changed over the years. Her early paintings had strong geometric shapes. They used grids and clear color blocks. Now, her art is more free-flowing. She mixes different elements and patterns. Her symbols have also grown. They are now more hinting and less direct. She also adds quick notes to her art. These notes often make her work feel very current.

Using Words in Paintings

Words appear in many of Squeak's paintings, drawings, and prints. She likes how language can "mess things up." She thinks it makes us slow down and think. We read letters, then words, then sentences. Language makes us question what we think we already know.

List Paintings

In the 1990s, Squeak created "list paintings." These included lists about colors, gender ideas, and fears. Many of these paintings look similar. They have a list of words in one part of the canvas. Colors or images are charted in another part. For example, her painting Things Green lists words like "slime" and "jade." These words appear above green color swatches.

Song Paintings

Squeak continued her list-making with "song paintings." Starting around 2014, she made art with song titles. These titles are set in blocks of color. Reading the song titles together shows a look at modern music. It also shows her personal taste. It's interesting how songs can be linked to create new meanings. One critic said that the song titles in her painting Girls (2015) were very powerful. They showed different parts of being a girl.

Teaching Art

Squeak Carnwath was a Professor of Art. From 1983 to 1998, she taught at the University of California, Davis. She worked with other famous artists there.

In 1998, Squeak moved to UC Berkeley. She taught there until she retired in 2010. Before that, she also taught at California College of Arts and Crafts and Ohlone College.

Art Shows (Solo)

Squeak Carnwath has had many solo art shows. Here are some of them:

• 2022: Pattern Language, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York City, New York
• 2020: Unveiling Territory, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, Washington
• 2019: Not All Black and White, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York
• 2019: Squeak Carnwath: How the Mind Works, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California
• 2016: Everyday is Not the Same: Squeak Carnwath's Prints and Papers, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, Oregon
• 2016: Crazy Papers and Sister Objects, American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C.
• 2015: What Before Comes After, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York, New York
• 2011: Squeak Carnwath: All Thought and Pleasure, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California
• 2009: Squeak Carnwath: Painting Is No Ordinary Object, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
• 2004: Squeak Carnwath Being Human: Paintings & Prints, Olin Art Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio
• 2000: Squeak Carnwath, David Beitzel Gallery, New York City, New York
• 1998: Squeak Carnwath: Seeing in the Dark, California Museum of Art, Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, California
• 1986: Squeak Carnwath: New Paintings and Works on Paper, Van Straaten Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
• 1984: Squeak Carnwath: Paintings, Getler/Pall/Saper Gallery, New York City, New York
• 1982: Squeak Carnwath, Hansen Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, California
• 1980: Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award 1980, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

Art Shows (Group)

Squeak Carnwath has also been part of many group art shows:

• 2020: Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 2019: Building a Different Model: Selections From the di Rosa Collection, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, California
• 2018: Rise Up! Social Justice in Art From the Collection of J. Michael Bewley, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
• 2017: Color and Pattern, Pivot Art + Culture, Seattle, Washington
• 2014: Building Forward, Looking Back, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California
• 2012: The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 2011: Fifty Years of Bay Area Art – The SECA Awards, SFMOMA, San Francisco, California
• 2010: American Printmaking Now, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (traveling)
• 2006: The Missing Peace Project: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, Fowler Museum, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (traveling)
• 2001: Pay Attention…I hope you learned your lesson: Works from the Collection of Laila Twigg-Smith, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i
• 1997: The Magic of Numbers, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
• 1997: Bay Area Art from the Morgan Flagg Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco - M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California
• 1995: Abstraction, The Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda
• 1991: Herstory: Narrative Art by Contemporary California Artists, January 12 – March 24, the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
• 1987: The Third Western States Biennial, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas (traveling)
• 1982: From the Sunny Side: Six East Bay Artists, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
• 1982: Emerging Northern California Artists, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, California

Where to See Her Art

Squeak Carnwath's art is in many public collections. This means you can see her work in museums and art centers. Here are some places:

• American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, New York
• Anderson Collection at Stanford University, Stanford, California
• Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, California
• Bowdoin College Art Museum, Brunswick, Maine
• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
• Crocker Museum of Art, Sacramento, California
• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California
• Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawai'i
• List Visual Art Center, M.I.T., Boston, Massachusetts
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, M
• The Shrem Museum, University of California, Davis, California
• Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
• Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
• Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California
• The Rutgers University Fine Arts Collection, Brunswick, New Jersey
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
• San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
• Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Other Cool Projects

In 2000, Squeak Carnwath helped start the Artists' Legacy Foundation (ALF). She worked with her husband, Gary Knecht, and artist Viola Frey. This foundation helps other artists. It gives awards and grants. It also helps protect the art of artists who have passed away.

In 2017, she started the Roll Up Project. This is a special window display space. It shows art by artists from the Bay Area in California. It's in Oakland and helps celebrate local artists.