Senga Nengudi

Senga Nengudi (née Sue Irons; born September 18, 1943) is an African-American visual artist and curator. She is best known for her abstract sculptures that combine found objects and choreographed performance. She is part of a group of African-American avant-garde artists working in New York City and Los Angeles, from the 1960s and onward.

Nengudi was named the 2023 Nasher Prize Laureate for her contribution to the discipline of sculpture.

On March 16, 2026, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation awarded Nengudi its Rauschenberg Centennial Award for art. The award gives the recipient $100,000, as well as an invitation to participate in the Foundation’s Captiva Residency program.

Early life and education Nengudi was born Sue Irons in Chicago, Illinois in 1943. As a result of an existing segregated school system, Nengudi found herself in between schools, transferring back and forth between Los Angeles and Pasadena. Her cousin Eileen Abdulrashid is also an artist.

Following her graduation from Dorsey High School, Nengudi studied art and dance during the 1960s at California State University, Los Angeles, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1967. She then spent a year studying at Waseda University in Tokyo, in the hopes of learning more about the Gutai Art Association. In 1967, she returned to California State University, from which she received a Master of Arts degree in sculpture in 1971. During college, in 1965, she interned at the Watts Towers Art Center when Noah Purifoy was the director. She also worked as an art instructor at the Pasadena Art Museum and the Fine Arts Community Workshop.

Career Nengudi was part of the radical, avant-garde Black art scenes in both New York City and Los Angeles, during the 1960s and 1970s. Cheryl Banks was another artist who collaborated closely with Nengudi and with whom she corresponded frequently about their work. This collective was comprised African American artists "distinguished by their experimental and improvisational practice." Hammons and Hassinger became frequent collaborators with her work. Other members of Studio Z included Ronn Davis, Duval Lewis, RoHo, Barbara McCullough, Houston Conwill, and Joe Ray (artist). In 1978, Nengudi paired with Hassinger for a performance piece in which the two artists improvised movement while entangled inside a large web of pantyhose. The performance symbolized the ways in which women are restricted by societal gender norms. Nengudi also took many staged photographs during this period. She often appeared anonymously in them herself as a genderless figure, defying definition.

Themes of work Complicating cultural, ethnic and racial classification became as central to Nengudi's work as her handling of gender constraints. She often combines African, Asian and Native American art forms in particular for her performance pieces and staged photographs. While her oeuvre highlights issues surrounding gender, race and ethnicity, Nengudi's work focuses on the ways in which everyone is negatively affected by these systematic forces and her pieces attempt to foster cross-cultural inspiration for men and women alike.

She often cites African and Eastern philosophies as underpinning her work.

Work

R.S.V.P. series, 1975–1977 In 1975, following the birth of her son and seeing the changes in her body, Nengudi began her R.S.V.P. series (also known as repondez s’il vous plait), for which she is best known. The sculptures were made from everyday objects, like pantyhose, and parts were stretched, twisted, knotted, and filled with sand. These sculptures as well as her later performance pieces involving pantyhose expressed a mélange of sensuality, race identity, body image, and societal impacts on women's bodies.

Despite having been increasingly involved in the African American artist community in Los Angeles, when the "R.S.V.P." series made its debut, there was no significant public interest in her work. One of Nengudi's close friends and one of her art collaborators, David Hammons brought forth an explanation for the public's lack of interest in Nengudi's work, ascribing it to the abstract aesthetic present in many of Nengudi's pieces throughout the 1960s and the 1970s. Furthermore, Nengudi's "R.S.V.P" sculptures differed greatly from most of the art work made popular by her artistic peers in Los Angeles and New York. Nengudi was made aware of the perception of her art by the public as it compared to artwork made by her peers, particularly in New York, where some people felt she was not making "black art."

Ceremony for Freeway Fets (1978) Nengudi and members of the Studio Z collective (including Hammons and Hassinger) performed, Ceremony for Freeway Fets (1978) under a freeway overpass on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. Nengudi designed costumes and headdresses made of pantyhose for the performers. Hammons and Hassinger played the roles of male and female spirits, with Nengudi performing as a spirit to unite the genders. Both the dance performance and soundtrack, performed by members of Studio Z, were improvised.

Warp Trance (2007) During her 2007 residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, Nengudi incorporated video art into her practice for the first time.

She writes poetry under the pseudonyms Harriet Chin, Propecia Lee, and Lily B. Moor. and Senga Nengudi: Topologies (2021) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The artist has also participated in a wide array of group shows and exhibitions, including the 57th Venice Biennale (2017).

Notable works in public collections

Water Composition I (1970, refabricated 2019), Dia Art Foundation, Beacon, New York; and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York R.S.V.P. (1975), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles R.S.V.P. Fall 1976 (1976, refabricated 2017), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago R.S.V.P. V (1976), Studio Museum in Harlem, New York R.S.V.P. X (1976, refabricated 2014), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Swing Low (1976, refabricated 2014), Los Angeles County Museum of Art Untitled (1976), Museum of Modern Art, New York Inside/Outside (1977), Brooklyn Museum, New York Internal I (1977, refabricated 2014), Whitney Museum, New York Internal II (1977, refabricated 2015), Tate, London Performance with "Inside/Outside" (1977), Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. R.S.V.P. I (1977, refabricated 2003), Museum of Modern Art, New York R.S.V.P. XI (1977, refabricated 2004), Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh R.S.V.P. Reverie-"B" Suite (1977, refabricated 2011), Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston Ceremony for Freeway Fets (1978), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles R.S.V.P. Performance Piece (1978, refabricated 2012), Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris Revery - R (2011), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles R.S.V.P. Reverie "Bow Leg" (2014), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Selected publications Nengudi, Senga; Fabric Workshop and Museum (2007). Senga Nengudi. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fabric Workshop and Museum. Nengudi, Senga; Warehouse Gallery (2012). Senga Nengudi : lov u. Syracuse, New York: Warehouse Gallery. Nengudi, Senga; Claus, Elisabeth (2012). Senga Nengudi. Aschaffenburg, Bavaria: Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg e.V. KunstLANDing. Nengudi, Senga; Jones, Kellie; White Cube (2014). Senga Nengudi : alt. London, England: White Cube. Nengudi, Senga; Jones, Kellie; Luard, Honey; Feaver, Dorothy; White Cube (2014). Senga Nengudi : Alt : inside the White Cube. Nengudi, Senga; Burnett Abrams, Nora; Auther, Elissa; Jones, Amelia; Pitts Angaza, Gregory (2015). Senga Nengudi : improvisational gestures. Denver, Colorado: Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.