Documentary art, video installations, multi-media, videos, artist's books focused on the Freedom of Information Act and declassified government documents
Notable work
Essential Documents, The FBI File on Jean Seberg, Part I, Part II (1979)
Secret I (1980) floor installation with pamphlet, Artists Space Gallery, New York
Secret III, Secret IV (1980) window installations with pamphlets, Printed Matter and Franklin Furnace, New York
Secret VI (1980) video installation, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
Freedom of Information Tapes 1-3, (1980-1985)
American Film Institute First and Fifth Annual Video Festivals (1981, 1985)
Jean Seberg/The FBI/The Media (1981) video installation, book, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Progress/Memory II (1984) video installation, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Jean Seberg in Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists (1980) Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
Progress/Memory in Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move Into the Mainstream 1970 to 1985 (1988-1990) United States (multiple showings)
Rehnquist to Hear Black Panther Case in Committed to Print (1988-1990) Museum of Modern Art, New York
Andy Warhol et al. The FBI File on Andy Warhol (1988) book
Looking at Militarism (1989) film and video installation, List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
I a WO/MAN (1989) video and film installation, San Francisco Artspace
Jean Seberg in Postcards from Alphaville: Jean Luc Godard in Contemporary Art 1963-1992 (1992-1993), P.S.1, Institute for Contemporary Art, New York
CIA Screen in Democracy and Politics (1993), group material at Dia Art Foundation, New York
Margia Kramer (born 1939) is an American documentary visual artist, writer and activist living in New York. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kramer recontextualized primary texts in a series of pioneering, interdisciplinary multi-media installations, videotapes, self-published books, and writings that focused on feminist, civil rights, civil liberties, censorship, and surveillance issues.
In the 1970s and 1980s, using the United States' Freedom of Information Act (1967), Kramer sourced and requested, from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), specific documents and dossiers.[11] Kramer presented these original FBI and CIA documents to the public in her art works, exactly as they were released to her, including redactions, and unchanged in text and format. To underscore the inherent repressiveness of the official government documents' deletions and redactions, Kramer's creative process included enlarging or reducing their scale, shifting their positive/negative ratios (documents were made into negatives and enlarged), and changing the materials upon which they were printed from paper to transparent film.[12] Kramer transformed the hieratic, primary materials into installations of giant negative photostats on transparent film that were suspended on threads from ceilings to cast shadows on surrounding walls. The large scale, hanging black rectangles and trenchant white to black positive/negative forms where redactions and texts became transparent, combined to create a chilling but compelling atmosphere that was simultaneously oppressive and informative.
By making art that highlighted the specific contents of the documents she received, Kramer was able to demonstrate their undercover strategies, as well as their negative emotional and material impact on the lives of United States citizens protected by the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.[13] These works centered on issues around feminism, censorship, civil liberties, and civil rights, all in the context of government surveillance.[14] In particular, Kramer made a series of videos, documentary books, and installations on subjects of state counterintelligence programs ("cointelpro") including the actress Jean Seberg,[15][16] and the artist, filmmaker, and impresario/provocateur Andy Warhol.[17][18]
Window installation (exterior/interior), "Secret III," 1980, Printed Matter Bookstore, Lispenard Street, NYC. Pages from Jean Seberg's FBI File received by the artist from the FBI using the Freedom of Information Act. Enlarged pages from the file printed on transparent film, plus a self-published pamphlet with an introduction by the artist and including more facsimile pages from the File. Photograph by Margia Kramer.
Video installation with multi-media. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film of facsimiles of 4 pages from the FBI File on Jean Seberg and a New York Times article, "Rehnquist To Hear Black Panther Case," 20 minute videotape "Freedom of Information Tape 1, Jean Seberg" (1980) by Margia Kramer. "Jean Seberg/The FBI/The Media," a pamphlet by Margia Kramer. Approximately 12" x 12." In the exhibition, "Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists,"Institute of Contemporary Art, London.[19] Photograph by Margia Kramer.
Facsimiles of pages from the FBI File on Jean Seberg included copies of pages from relevant magazine and newspaper articles, an original 20 minute videotape "Freedom of Information Tape 1, Jean Seberg" by Margia Kramer, an original handbook, "Jean Seberg/The FBI/The Media" by Margia Kramer, enlarged negative photostats on transparent film of file pages, and positive photostats on paper of relevant magazine and newspaper articles. Approx. 25' x 25' The exhibition encompassed a Jean Seberg Film Festival held at the Donnell Library and Carnegie Hall Cinema, a special screening of Seberg as "St. Joan" at MOMA, and a panel discussion "Freedom of Information and the Arts," moderated by Margia Kramer, at the Donnell Library. Photograph by the Margia Kramer.
"Address Book Triptych" (1987-1988). Multi-media triptych. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film of facsimiles of declassified, redacted pages of opponents of the Vietnam War. From the FBI files requested by the artist using the Freedom of Act. Teak frames with Plexiglas, 22" x 51" (3 panels).[20] Photograph by Margia Kramer.
"CIA Screen" (1987-1988). Multi-media four-panel folding screen. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film of facsimile of a 4-page recruitment brochure published by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for its Clandestine Service. Teak frames with Plexiglas, 72" x 80" (4 panels). In the exhibition "Democracy and Politics," (1988) curated by Group Material at the Dia Art Foundation, New York.[21][22] Photograph by the Margia Kramer.
"Looking At Militarism" (1989). Multi-media installation with film and video. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film, with teak frames, of facsimiles of documents from MIT archives, government defense programs, war and peace initiatives, budget priorities, newspaper articles, and other relevant documents. Archival film footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki showing the effects of nuclear war. Original video interviews by the artist on the subject of peace activism with MIT Professors Vera Kistiakowsky and Noam Chomsky. Approximately 40' x 50'. List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[23][24] Photograph by Margia Kramer.
"I a WO/MAN: The FBI File on Andy Warhol" (1989). Mixed media installation. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film, with redwood frames, of facsimiles of redacted pages from Andy Warhol's FBI File — using the Freedom of Information Act, the artist requested that the file be declassified following Warhol's death. The large photostats were hung from the ceiling over 30' long, horizontal platform that concealed all but the screens of video monitors pointed towards the ceiling, continuously playing three, commercially released Warhol/Morrisey films: Flesh, Trash, and Heat. Pamphlet by Margia Kramer, "Andy Warhol et al. The FBI File on Andy Warhol" (New York, 1988). Approximately 25' x 40'. San Francisco Artspace.[25] Includes "The Warhol File," by Margia Kramer from The Village Voice, May 1988.[26] Photograph by Bonnie Burt.
1988 "Taking the Fifth" (1/2" 10 min.). Margia Kramer comments on footage from Oliver North's testimony during the Iran Contra Hearings (1987), contrasted with witness testimony during the Army-McCarthy Hearings (1954). Also, contains comments by Edward R. Murrow. This tape was part of Kramer's installation, "Unknown Secrets," a traveling exhibition about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, that toured museums, galleries, and alternative spaces throughout USA from 1988-1990
1989 "Looking at Militarism: Two Interviews "(1/2" 60 min.) Margia Kramer's interviews with activist Prof. Noam Chomsky of MIT and peace activist Prof. Vera Kistiakowsky of MIT, part of Kramer's 1989 multi-media installation "Looking at Militarism" at MIT
1985 "Freedom of Information Tape 3; The Guerrilla Manual for the Contras in Nicaragua" (3/4" 4 min.) Margia Kramer turns the pages and reads from a copy of the original manual distributed by the United States government in 1984
1984 "Progress (Memory) A Video Installation" (3/4" 5 min.) Margia Kramer videotapes, with voice-over, part of Kramer's 1984 video installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art
1983 "Freedom of Information Tape 2: Progress and Access" (3/4" 36 min.) Margia Kramer interviews several internet pioneers who are developing the World Wide Web. Includes an interview with the 1973 Noble Laureate in Economics, Wassily Leontief, Director of NYU's Institute for Economic Analysis, about automation and the future of work
1982 "No More Witchhunts, A Street Festival" (3/4" 15 min.) 1980. With hand-held camera, Kramer interviews participants while roaming the activist street fair that was held near The Cooper Union in New York. The festival was directed and curated by Margia Kramer with PAD/D and The Fund for Open Information and Accountability
1980 "Freedom of Information Tape 1; Jean Seberg "' (3/4" 18 min.) A dramatic recounting of Jean Seberg's life, career, and death combining voice-over enactments of texts from Seberg's writings and magazine interviews, original and appropriated footage and voice-over, archival film stills, and excerpts from the film "Breathless," (1960) by Jean-Luc Godard
1988 "Andy Warhol et al: The FBI File on Andy Warhol" New York (64 pages, self-published, UnSub Press)
1981 "Jean Seberg/The FBI/The Media" New York (self published, 40 pages)
1980 "Essential Documents: The FBI File on Jean Seberg Part II" New York (self published, 40 pages)
1979 "Essential Documents: The FBI File on Jean Seberg Part I" New York ( self-published, 40 pages)
Other original writings
Artist's Statement, 1980 "Secret I," Artists Space Gallery, New York, April 22, 1979
Artist's Statement, "Obelisk for Raymond Williams, commissioned by The Public Art Fund for City Hall Park, New York, May 15-November 15, 1988
Cieri, Marie, Dana Friis Hansen, Katy Kline, Helaine Posner (with Margia Kramer, contributor). "19 Projects, Artists-in-Residence at the MIT List Visual Arts Center," Cambridge, Mass, 1996, p. 133-144
Kramer, Margia. "Cracking the Concrete: Interventionist Posters," Upfront, Winter 1986/87 (New York),p.iiif
Kramer, Margia. "Disinformation Warfare, A Breaking of Codes in Painting and Video," Red Bass, Women's International Arts Issue #10, Winter/Spring 1986 (Tallahassee), p. 9f
Kramer, Margia. "Notes on Art as Intervention," Women Artists News, May 1980 (New York), p.l4f
Kramer, Margia. "Notes on Expression/Repression," Wedge: An Aesthetic Inquiry, Number 1, Summer 1982 (New York), p. 30f
Kramer, Margia and Vanalyn Green. "Against Inner Exile," Upfront 2, Winter 1981/82 (New York), p. 30f
Kramer, Margia. "The Warhol File," The Village Voice (New York), 5/17/88
In Okun, Rob A. (ed.) "The Rosenbergs, Collected Visions of Artists and Writers," New York, 1988, p. 31,157 (Artist Statement), Plate 40
In O'Pray, Michael (ed.) "Andy Warhol: Film Factory," London (British Film Institute) 1989, p. 9, 178f. Includes ' The Warhol File," by Margia Kramer from The Village Voice, May 1988
In Roman, Gail Harrison (ed.) "The Artist's Perception 1948/1984," Catalogue of the exhibition with Artist's Statement and Introduction by Gail Harrison Roman, Vassar College Art Gallery, March 23 - May 6, 1984
"Essential Documents, The FBI File on Jean Seberg, Part I, Part II" (1979) by Margia Kramer
"Secret I" (1980) floor installation with pamphlet, Artists Space Gallery, New York
"Secret III" "Secret IV" (1980) window installations with pamphlets, Printed Matter and Franklin Furnace, New York
"Secret VI" (1980) video installation, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
"Freedom of Information Tapes 1-3," (1980-1985)
"American Film Institute First and Fifth Annual Video Festivals," (1981, 1985)
"Progress/Memory II (1984) video installation, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
"Jean Seberg" in "Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists" (1980), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
"Progress/Memory" in "Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move Into the Mainstream 1970 to 1985" (1989-1990) United States (multiple showings) 1988-90
"Address Triptych" (1987-1988) in 1990 exhibition, "A Different War: Vietnam in Art," at the Whatcom Museum, Seattle WA
"CIA Screen," in "Democracy and Politics," (1993), Group Material at Dia Art Foundation, New York
"Rehnquist to Hear Black Panther Case," in "Committed to Print" (1988-1990), Museum of Modern Art, New York
"Andy Warhol et al. The FBI File on Andy Warhol" (1988) Book
"Looking at Militarism" (1989), film and video installation, List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"I a WO/MAN" (1989), video and film installation, San Francisco Artspace
"Jean Seberg" in "Postcards from Alphaville: Jean Luc Godard in Contemporary Art 1963-1992" (1992-1993), P.S.1, Institute for Contemporary Art, New York
^Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy (1997). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. p. 315. ISBN9781315051680.
^Kramer, Margia. "Notes on Art as Intervention", Women Artists News, May 1980 (New York), p. 14f
^"Artists Space". Margia Kramer January 5–19, 1980. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
^Lippard, Lucy R."Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists," Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, (1980)
^Kramer, Margia. "Notes on Expression/Repression," Wedge: An Aesthetic Inquiry, Number 1, Summer 1982 (New York), p.30f
^Linker, Kate. "Margia Kramer, Progress (Memory)," in "Reviews, New York," Artforum, Vol.XXII, No.10, Summer 1984 (New York), p.89
^Miller, Branda and Deborah Irmas et al. "Surveillance," LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), Los Angeles, 1987
^Kramer, Margia. "The Warhol File," The Village Voice (New York), 5/17/88
^O'Pray, Michael (ed.) "Andy Warhol: Film Factory," London (British Film Institute) 1989
^Lucy R. Lippard, "Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists," Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, 1980)
^Lucy R. Lippard, "A Different War: Vietnam in Art" (Seattle 1990), pp. 111,114
^"Democracy and Politics," Group Material, Dia Art Foundation (New York, 1988)
^Brian Wallis (ed.) "DEMOCRACY A Project of Group Material," Dia Art Foundation, Discussions in Contemporary Culture, Number 5 (Seattle, 1990)
^Marie Cieri et al. (with artist contributors). "19 Projects, Artists-in-Residence at the MIT List Visual Arts Center," Cambridge, Mass, 1996, p.133-144.
^O'Pray, Michael (ed.) "Andy Warhol: Film Factory," London (British Film Institute, 1989) p.9, 178f.
^Kramer, Margia. "The Warhol File," The Village Voice (New York), 5/17/88
^Ault, Julie (2002). Alternative Art, New York, 1965-1985: A Cultural Politics Book for the Social Text Collective. U of Minnesota Press. p. 339. ISBN0816637946.
^Kramer, Margia and Vanalyn Green. "Against Inner Exile," Upfront 2, Winter 1981/82 (New York), p.30f
^Kramer, Margia. "Cracking the Concrete: Interventionist Posters," Upfront, Winter 1986/87 (New York),p.iiif
^"MoMA". Margia Kramer American, born 1936. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
^Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy (1997). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. p. 315. ISBN9781315051680.
Ashton, Dore. American Art Since 1945, New York 1982, p. 190f
Brentano, Robyn, Mark Savitt (ed.). 112 Workshop/112 Greene Street, New York 1981, p. 250f
Cieri, Marie, Dana Friis Hansen, Katy Kline, Helaine Posner (contributors). 19 Projects, Artists-in-Residence at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Mass, 1996, p. 133-144
Lippard, Lucy R. A Different War, Vietnam in Art, Seattle (Whatcom Museum of History and Art), 1990 p. 111,114.
Lippard, Lucy R. Get the Message? A Decade of Art for Social Change, New York 1984, p. 140f
Okun, Rob A. (ed.) The Rosenbergs, Collected Visions of Artists and Writers, New York 1988, p. 31,157, Plate 40
Podesta, Patti (ed.). Resolution, A Critique of Video Art, Los Angeles 1986, p. 76 84
Rosen, Randy and Cathy Brawer (eds.) Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move Into the Mainstream 1970 to 1985, New York 1989, p. 146f, 249f, 287
Wye, Deborah. Committed to Print. Social and Political Themes in Recent American Printed Art, New York 1988, p. 30, 34, 108
Catalogues:
Chomsky, Noam et al. "Disinformation, The Manufacture of Consent," Alternative Museum, New York (New York 1985)
Gumpert, Lynn. "Framed," San Francisco Artspace (San Francisco, 1989)
Hanhardt, John. "The Whitney Museum of American Art New American Filmmakers Series #15, Margia Kramer, Progress(Memory) 1983 84" (New York 1984)
Hills Patricia. "Social Concern in the Eighties, A New England Perspective," Boston University Art Gallery (Boston 1984)
Kolpan, Steven C. "The 1982 CAPS Video/Multi Media Festival, Radical Departures" (New York 1982) p. 9f
Lippard, Lucy R. "Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists," Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (London 1980)
