Naked Action Lecture, 1968

action lecture
Institute of Contemporary Art, London
June 27, 1968
Performers: Carolee Schneemann with two participants selected from audience

Naked Action Lecture was arranged by the director of the London Institute of Contemporary Art, Michael Kustow. I lecture on my visual works and their relations to antecedents in painting while both dressed and undressed, dressing and undressing.
Naked Action Lecture asked the questions: can an artist be an art historian? Can an art historian be a naked woman? Does a woman have intellectual authority? Can she have public authority while naked and speaking? Was the content of the lecture less appreciable when she was naked? What multiple levels of uneasiness, pleasure, curiosity, erotic fascination, acceptance, or rejection were activated in an audience?