Laura Cottingham is a graduate of Notre Dame Academy, in Park Hills, Kentucky and of the University of Chicago. In 1981-82 she was a Helena Rubenstein Fellow in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program. Her activities have been primarily concentrated in Europe—including Austria, Germany, France, Spain, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden—where she has published, exhibited and lectured widely. Her work is concerned with reconsidering the meaning of art in light of the countercultural values of circa 1968. Her influences include Fluxus, Rock and roll, punk, ballet, radical feminism, Gay rights, Black Power, Zen and Gestalt. Aside from Angst essen Seele auf, Cottingham's other books include Seeing Through the Seventies: Essays on Feminism and Art ; Lesbians Are So Chic... and How many 'bad' feminists does it take to change a lightbulb?, also in French. She is best known for her work recuperating Seventies Feminist Art and has published extensively on many of the artists of that period, as well as on artists of her own generation. Her Not For Sale: Feminism and Art in the USA during the 1970s, premiered at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1998. The Anita Pallenberg Story is a satire on the internationalart scene that features Cottingham playing Mick Jagger; other art world personalities likewise appear in this Warhol-like drama, including collector Peter Norton who plays a pizza delivery boy. "Pallenberg" is the subject of a website: "LOVE, SEX, FAME and the LIFE OF THE IMAGE: On the making of the Anita Pallenberg Story" at www.haussite.net, the Kuenstlerhaus Stuttgart's website. In 2006 she co-curated Sweden's annual national exhibition for the Lilevalchs Konsthalle, Stockholm.
Her name is featured in the Le Tigre song, "Hot Topic." She often appeared as a contestant on "Name That Painting," a Manhattan cable television show.
Videography
NOT FOR SALE: Feminism and Art in the USA during the 1970s, 1998, 90 minutes. Premiered at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1998; subsequently exhibited in Los Angeles, Vienna, London, Paris, Munich, Berlin, San Antonio, San Sebastian, Utrecht, Dublin, Ft. Worth, Cambridge, etc.
The Anita Pallenberg Story, 2000, 77 minutes. Featuring Laura Cottingham as Mick Jagger along with a star-studded cast of international fine art flunkies including art dealersColin de Land and Gavin Brown; collector and software genius Peter Norton ; gallery artists from Europe and the US, including, in the title role, Cosima von Bonin.
Various Shorts, since 1992, including special features on Manhattan Cable and additional gallery and museum works.
