Kasten, Barbara

American experimental photographer. Born in Chicago, Illinois; University of Arizona, Tucson, B.F.A., 1959; California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California, M.F.A., 1970.

Barbara Kasten came to photography by way of her interest in traditional Native American arts and fiber sculpture. After receiving a B.F.A. from the University of Arizona, and an M.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts, Kasten was granted a Fulbright scholarship to study for a year with fiber sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz , in Poland. Upon returning to California, Kasten began to work in photography, making abstract photograms of folded mesh and large-scale Polacolor prints of sculptural arrangements. She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1977 and, in 1980, received a NEA service-to-the-field grant to create videotape documentaries of women photographers.

Based in New York since 1982, Kasten has been involved in a number of varied and interesting projects, including designing stage settings for the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco, photographing existing modern architecture for an architectural series, and creating a series of photographs based on the 19th-century (Jackson) Pollock-(Lee ) Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton. In 1988, Kasten worked on a site series in New Mexico.

In 1991, Kasten was awarded both the Pont-Aven Artist-in-Residency from the Musée de Pont-Aven in France and an Apple photographic grant. She has had solo exhibitions at the John Weber Gallery, New York (1990 and 1992), the Ehlers/Caudill Gallery, Chicago (1990), the Gallery RBI at Orbi, Paris (1991), the Parco Exposure Gallery, Tokyo (1991), Place Sazaby, Los Angeles (1992), and Tinglado Dos, Tarragona, Spain (1992).

sources:

Rosenblum, Naomi. A History of Women Photographers. NY: Abbeville Press, 1994.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts