Patty Muschinski
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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
[edit]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
[edit]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Muschinski was a key player in the Pop Art and Happenings scenes, which is revealed in an unpublished memoir, Clean Slate: My Life in the 1960's New York Art World.[3] In 2022, the title was changed to Threads, and portions of this book have appeared in Art in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
[edit]- ^ 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.
- ^ "Patty Mucha Papers: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids". findingaids.library.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-05-04.
- ^ a b c d e "Oral history interview with Patty Mucha, 2024 May 10". Smithsonian. May 10, 2024.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Patty Mucha Papers: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids". findingaids.library.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-05-04.
- ^ "Patty Mucha Papers: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids". findingaids.library.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2025-05-04.
- Smithsonian. Retrieved 10 April 2025.
- Granary Books. Retrieved 10 April 2025.
Bibliography
[edit]- Oral history interview with Patty Mucha, 2024 May 10 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. (n.d.). Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-patty-mucha-22346.
- Patty [Oldenburg] Mucha Archive. (n.d.). Granary Books, Inc. https://www.granarybooks.com/images/upload/pattymucha-prospectus1.pdf.