art and poetry journal · 2022

Senga Nengudi

Star form against wall
Water Composition I, 1970/2019, vinyl, rope, water, food coloring, A.P. 1/1, ed. of 2
Courtesy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC. Photo: Lori Ortiz

Born in 1943, Senga Nengudi Studied art and dance in California Sate University, LA, earning her BA the year after the Watts Uprising. She then, in Tokyo, pursued an interest in the Japanese Gutai group. Back in LA she earned her MA in sculpture. She had started the Water Composition series, moving to stuffed nylon stocking sculptures, which were exhibited at Just Above Midtown gallery in New York. She continued working with biomorphic forms and unconventional materials for the next 50 years. In 2021, The Guggenheim purchased Water Composition I, on view in their 2022 group show “Sensory Poetics: Collecting Abstraction.”