Patty Muschinski

Patty Muschinski (Oldenburg) (1935), also Patty Mucha, is a poet, writer, and artist, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and lives in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.[1] Muschinski was named Patsy Muschinski at birth and was later baptized as a Catholic, "Patricia, Patricia Joan."[1] Her grandfather's name was Mucha, which he changed to Muschinski, her maiden name.

Life

Muschinski was born to parents who worked as farmers, and she had two brothers, Joseph and Ralph.[1] She moved from Milwaukee to New York in the 1950s, where she taught herself how to sew her own clothes, since the size she needed (petite) was not available.[1] Her brother, Joseph, was an artist in high school and encouraged her to paint.[1] Today, she farms, writes, and paints in Vermont near St. Johnsbury.[2]

Career

Muschinski went to the Wisconsin State Teachers College in Milwaukee where she earned a degree in art, and also met artist Claes Oldenburg, who she was married to from 1960 to 1970. She first met him while posing as one of his nude models.[3] She also collaborated with him on many of his soft sculptures.[1] She had a significant part in the Pop Art and Happenings scenes,[1] and was also friends with Andy Warhol in the 1960s.[3] Before Warhol designed the album cover for The Velvet Underground, he was a back-up singer in a band called The Druds, along with Muschinski, who was the band's lead singer.[4] Muschinski also had a role in Warhol's film "Tarzan and Jane Remain," along with then husband Oldenburg.[3] She has also appeared in films produced by Rudy Wurlitzer, Robert Breer, Jean Dupuy, Rudy Burckhardt, and Red Grooms.[5]

Muschinski was a key player in the Pop Art and Happenings scenes, which is revealed in an unpublished memoir, Clean Slate: My Life in the 1960's New York Art World.[3] In 2022, the title was changed to Threads, and portions of this book have appeared in Art in America, and "Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968."[6] She has published several poetry books, including Poems Traveling, 1971-1973 (Panorama, 1973) and See Vermont: Poems, 1974-1978 (Poets Mimeo Cooperative, 1979).[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Oral history interview with Patty Mucha, 2024 May 10 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  2. ^ "Patty Mucha Papers: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids". findingaids.library.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-05-04.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Oral history interview with Patty Mucha, 2024 May 10". Smithsonian. May 10, 2024.
  4. ^ "Six Feet of the 1960s and '70s: Patty Mucha—Once Mrs. Oldenburg—on Her Archives and New Memoir". Observer. 2012-01-16. Retrieved 2025-05-04.
  5. ^ "Patty Mucha Papers: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids". findingaids.library.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-05-04.
  6. ^ "Patty Mucha Papers: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids". findingaids.library.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-05-04.
  1. Smithsonian. Retrieved 10 April 2025.
  2. Granary Books. Retrieved 10 April 2025.

Bibliography

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