Barbara Degenevieve

Barbara DeGenevieve (1947–2014) was an interdisciplinary artist living in Chicago, who worked in photography, video, and performance. She lectured widely on her work and on subjects including human sexuality, gender, transsexuality, censorship, ethics, and pornography. Her writing on these subjects have been published in art, photographic, and scholarly journals, and her work has been exhibited internationally.

DeGenevieve studied photography at the University of New Mexico receiving her MFA in 1980, and began teaching at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign immediately following. She taught at San Jose State University, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the California College of Art before joining the faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994. DeGenevieve was a professor and chair of the Department of Photography at the School of the Art Institute.

Much of DeGenevieve's art explored the connections among dominance, power, and sex, including their inverse relationships. This led DeGenevieve into controversy, particularly during the National Endowment for the Arts funding scandals of the early 1990s (widely known as "the culture wars"). She spoke on many occasions on issues of censorship as a direct result. On some occasions she used performative texts or poems, gothic costume, and theatrical tactics to amplify her point. She might speak in character as parody or as the subject of her discourse, but always with a sense of humor and charity for her subject. She continued to court controversy, having established an interdisciplinary and new media arts program at SAIC that instructs students on constructing sexually graphic artworks.

Lisa Wainwright once commented DeGenevieve's works as "she showed everyone the rowdy, the provocative. How art should get in your face, really startle you.You should gasp." DeGenevieve photographed five homeless black men from Chicago nude in a hotel room, which received wide recognition for her voices given to the social issues on race, gender and class.

DeGenevieve won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (Visual Artist Fellowship); Art Matters Foundation Fellowship; and the Illinois Arts Council. Her critical and artistic works have been published in Exposure, SF Camerawork Magazine, and P-Form. Ezell Gallery, Chicago, represents her photographic work.

DeGenevieve was born in 1947 and died of cancer on August 9, 2014.

• Barbara DeGenevieve: Medusa's Cave. Iceberg Projects, Chicago (12 September - 10 October 2015)
• INTI Terry Adkins, Barbara DeGenevieve, Rochelle Feinstein, Maren Hassinger, Clifford Owens, William Pope.L, Martha Rosler. OnStellarRays, NY (26 June - 29 July 2011) Group Exhibit.
• Kissy-Kissy. Dean Jensen Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (15 September – 13 October 2007) Works exhibited: From The Panhandlers Project (2004 – 2006)
• Objectifying the Abject: Exploitation, Political (In)Correctness and Ethical Dilemmas. Gallery 400 at University of Illinois at Chicago (7 – 25 February 2006) Work exhibited: Dee, 2005, Gordon, 2004, Hank, 2004, Leon, 2004, Mike, 2005, The Panhandler Project, 2005
• I Smell Sex. Visual AIDS, NY curated by Barbara DeGenevieve (October 2001)
• Face Forward Self Portraiture in Contemporary Art. John Michael Kohler Arts Center (28 May – 27 August 1995) Work exhibited: ASK ME ANYTHING, I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE (1995)
• Barbara DeGenevieve: My Words in Your Mouth. Ezell/Gallery 954, Chicago (3–31 March 1995)

• "Barbara DeGenevieve: Medusa's Cave". Iceberg Projects. Retrieved 6 March 2016. 
• "Dean Jensen Gallery". Kissy-Kissy. Retrieved 5 March 2016. 
• Weinstein, Michael A. "Beyond the Binaries: Crossing the Boundaries of Identity Politics" (PDF). Gallery 400. University of Illinois at Chicago. Retrieved 5 March 2016. 
• "I Smell Sex". Visual AIDS. Retrieved 6 March 2016. 
• Sherlock, Maureen P. (1998) Published on the occasion of an exhibition organized and presented by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Sheboygan, Wisconsin: John Michael Kohler Arts Center. p. 22

• The Boys in Albuquerque (1978-1979)
• True Life Novelettes (1979-1982)
• Large Scale (1981-1985)
• Cliche Verres (1985-1992)
• Large Scale Stretched Fabric & Macaroni (1991-1995)
• Porn Poetry (1996-1997)
• Steven X and Barbara C (1999-2000)
• The Panhandler Project (2004-2006)
• Desperado (2004-2006)

• DeGenevieve, Barbara. "Images from Boys of Albuquerque". fStopped. Retrieved 6 March 2016. 
• DeGenevieve, Barbara. "Porn Poetry". Cargo Collective. Retrieved 6 March 2016. 
• "The Panhandler Project (video documentation)". Reframing Photography. Routledge. Retrieved 6 March 2016. 
• DeGenevieve, Barbara. "Desperado". Vimeo. 

• Degenevieve, Barbara (March 2007). "Censorship in the US or fear and loathing of the arts". Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture. Taylor and Francis. 13 (2): 159–173. doi:10.1080/13504630701235549. 
• Degenevieve, Barbara (January 2014). "The emergence of non-standard bodies and sexualities". Porn Studies. Taylor and Francis. 1 (1–2): 193–196. doi:10.1080/23268743.2014.888253.