As a young girl searching for female painters in the pantheon of art history, Carolee Schneemann mistook Cézanne for a woman’s name, “Céz-Anne.” Later, in the early 70s, she re-appropriated her childhood confusion as a banner for exploring how women had been misrepresented in the arts, publishing a collection of writings titled Cézanne: She Was a Great Painter. On the occasion of the Metropolitan Museum’s current exhibition Madame Cézanne, The Artist’s Institute revisits the significance of Schneemann’s alternative readings of art and artifacts with a new iteration of the live reading series Poetry Parade by A.K Burns and Katherine Hubbard. Moving through several of the Met’s galleries, the parade will present readings by nine artists and thinkers who have paired texts with works in the museum’s collection, engaging them, either as homage, confrontation or companion. Taking Madame Cézanne’s maiden name, Poetry Parade for Hortense Fiquet reconsiders the contributions of women in the arts, not as muses, props, wives, or possessions, but as active participants.

Readers include Malin Arnell, Fia Backström, A. K. Burns, Barbara Hammer, Katherine Hubbard, Eileen Myles, Jennifer Rosenblit, Carolee Schneemann, and Lanka Tattersall. The parade route traverses the galleries of Egyptian Art (Gallery 115) at 6:30 PM; galleries of Greek and Roman Art (Gallery 156) at 7:15 PM; and the Madame Cézanne exhibition gallery in the Robert Lehman Wing at 8:00 PM. Special thanks to the Education Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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