1950s
1960s
1970s
A01=Nicole L. Woods
abstract
acoustical
Allison
angeles
artist
Author_Nicole L. Woods
avant
Category=AGA
Category=AGB
Category=AJCD
Category=AMB
Category=DNB
Category=DNBF
digital
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eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
female
feminist
garde
germany
indeterminacy
installation
london
los
media
modern
modernist
new
painting
paris
performance
poetry
postwar
print
scene
sexism
silkscreen
sound
wiesbaden
woman
women
york
Product details
- ISBN 9780226654942
- Weight: 853g
- Dimensions: 178 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 24 Feb 2026
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The first monographic study of American artist Alison Knowles, a significant yet overlooked cofounder of the Fluxus movement.
Alison Knowles stands out as the sole female artist among the founders of Fluxus, yet she has remained an enigmatic, underrecognized figure in the history of art. Performing Chance fills a gap in the record, bringing to light Knowles’s transformative body of work as it evolved from abstract painting in the late 1950s, to silkscreens, print media, and performance in the early 1960s, to groundbreaking works in digital poetry, acoustical art, and large-scale installations in the late 1960s-70s.
Through her access to previously unpublished archival materials and direct interviews with the artist, Nicole L. Woods provides close readings of pivotal works, disclosing the ways Knowles instituted formal tactics that moved beyond modernist painting, championed principles of indeterminacy and chance, and fostered sociopolitical consciousness. Situating Knowles’s innovations in various media within the distinct cultural contexts of Wiesbaden, London, Paris, New York City, and Los Angeles, Performing Chance brings this key artist back to her rightful place as a leader of the postwar avant-garde and provides a nuanced history of the role of women artists in Fluxus and beyond.
Alison Knowles stands out as the sole female artist among the founders of Fluxus, yet she has remained an enigmatic, underrecognized figure in the history of art. Performing Chance fills a gap in the record, bringing to light Knowles’s transformative body of work as it evolved from abstract painting in the late 1950s, to silkscreens, print media, and performance in the early 1960s, to groundbreaking works in digital poetry, acoustical art, and large-scale installations in the late 1960s-70s.
Through her access to previously unpublished archival materials and direct interviews with the artist, Nicole L. Woods provides close readings of pivotal works, disclosing the ways Knowles instituted formal tactics that moved beyond modernist painting, championed principles of indeterminacy and chance, and fostered sociopolitical consciousness. Situating Knowles’s innovations in various media within the distinct cultural contexts of Wiesbaden, London, Paris, New York City, and Los Angeles, Performing Chance brings this key artist back to her rightful place as a leader of the postwar avant-garde and provides a nuanced history of the role of women artists in Fluxus and beyond.
Nicole L. Woods is a Los Angeles–based art historian and critic. She is distinguished visiting professor of modern and contemporary art at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
