Joanne Motichka (born 19 March 1954), known professionally as Matuschka, is an American photographer, artist, author, activist, and model. Her self-portrait on the Sunday cover of New York Times magazine in 1993 was chosen by LIFE for a special edition entitled 100 Photographs that Changed the World100 Photographs that Changed the World. New York, Life Books, 2011. p.90-91 published in 2003 and again in 2011. The artist has been nominated for many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, and has received dozens of citations, honors, and distinctions for her photographic works, and activism since the early 1990s. In 2012 Matuschka appeared in Rose Hartman's book Incomparable Women of Style, and in 2011 John Loengard included her in his monograph: The Age of Silver: Encounters with Great Photographers."Matuschka & Co." Matuschka & Co. – APA Member – American Photographic Artists, apanational.org/find-a-member/profile/m304001/ Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.
Early life
Matuschka was born in Newton, New Jersey to a policeman at the George Washington Bridge and a mother, who was a farm hand from Allamuchy, New Jersey. In 1968, when Matuschka was 13, her mother died of breast cancer.Haden-Guest, A. (1981, September). The Author as Model: Matuschka. Oui, 10(9), 100–109.
Six months after her Mother's death, Matuschka ran away from home, changed her name to “Lisa Cross” and began working as a cocktail waitress in Far Rockaway, New York. A year later "Lisa Cross" returned to New Jersey, became a ward of the State of New Jersey and was placed in foster care.
In 1970, Matuschka, 15, was adopted by the Marco family of Paramus, New Jersey. Anton Marco was an opera singer who toured Europe with Marlene Dietrich during the World War II, appeared in Woody Allen's film Zelig. and later gave Matuschka singing lessons in his music salon. His wife, Mourine Marco—a Special Ed teacher—recognized Matuschka's raw talent and enrolled her in art classes, provided books from the local library, and suggested she become a life-sketching model. Mrs. Marco also urged her to visit museums and galleries in New York City, encouraged her to keep a journal, write poetry, document her dreams, and scribe her memoirs.
That same summer, Matuschka and her foster sister went skinny dipping in Mahwah, New Jersey where they had a chance encounter with a photographer. An unexpected shoot followed and the pictures taken that day of Matuschka, began her modeling and photography career simultaneously at age 16.
Although Mrs. Marco and Matuschka would share a special relationship until the elder's death in 2005, Matuschka would go on to live in three more foster homes before the Bureau of Children's Services made a decision to send her to Windsor Mountain School, a boarding school located in Lenox Massachusetts in 1971.
Education Windsor Mountain Prep School
Windsor Mountain School was a private Prep School in the Berkshires and was known for its progressive, experiential learning, and multi-cultural student body. It is at Windsor Mountain School that Jan Wiener, a European History teacher, gave the aspiring artist and model the nickname "Matuschka"—a version of Motichka—which sounded much like her idol, the model "Veruschka".
At Windsor Mountain Matuschka excelled in the arts, winning the Art Prize at graduation and showed interest in photography as an art form. In 1973 she had her first solo art exhibition of figurative works at the Lenox Library, which was reviewed in The Berkshire Eagle.
As a teenager, Matuschka worked as a waitress, maid, house painter, wood splitter, electrician, fully attired Go-Go dancer, nude model, art assistant, and photo retoucher.
The Berkshires
Matuschka lived in Lenox next to Tanglewood and close to Alice's Restaurant where she met Ray and Alice Brock, attending several of their classic Thanksgiving dinners, and was introduced to photographers Gerard Malanga and Don Snyder. Don Snyder would go on to become Matuschka's mentor as she became his muse and mentee for the next 30 years.
During the two years she lived in the Berkshires, Matuschka worked as a photography/gallery assistant and apprentice to photojournalist Clemens Kalischer of The Image Gallery in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She also posed for life sketching classes, regional artists, and taught life sketching classes at Windsor Mountain. Matuschka's work as both a model and photographic assistant was essential to her development both behind the camera and in front of one. In the mid 70s Snyder introduced her to William Silano in NYC and working alongside these two photographers, she learned the art of chemically toning and manipulating prints in the darkroom. It is during this time that Matuschka began photographing herself in black and white on 35mm film.
College
Matuschka was enrolled for the 1973 fall semester at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, but at the last minute decided to matriculate at Prescott College—a small, private, liberal, school in Arizona founded by the Ford Foundation. At Prescott, she designed an independent curriculum with a variety of regional artists specializing in architecture. Her field studies brought her to the works and sites of Paolo Soleri, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Antoni Gaudi. Matuschka frequented Native American ruins in addition to Arcosanti, Cosanti, and Taliesin West—all a short distance from campus.
After taking the course of George Bruce at Prescott, she was invited by Bruce to publish her poetry in a Scottish Anthology called Arkos, which he edited. He selected a suite of Matuschka's poems entitled Visions from a Locked Ward for the 1974 edition.
Matuschka had her second solo show entitled The Tragedy of a Space Condemned at the Bofus Gallery at Prescott College which was reviewed in the Prescott Courier in 1974. This was the beginning of the artist's interest in combining text and imagery.
Prescott College went bankrupt at that time, and Matuschka transferred to the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City the following year.
At SVA, Matuschka studied with painters Jennifer Bartlett and Frank Roth. At night she drove for an illegal taxi operation, becoming one of the first and most likely youngest females—or individuals—to drive for a commercial taxi fleet at night. She was hired by Chase Maintenance Cab Company on West 47th Street during New York's most turbulent crime ridden years.
Career
The New York years: 1974–1987
Modeling In 1975, while driving a cab in NYC, a fare suggested Matuschka try fashion modeling and introduced her to his friend Wilhelmina of the Wilhelmina Modeling Agency. Wilhelmina set her up with agents in Milan and Paris to expand her portfolio. At 21, Matuschka quit both college and taxi driving to pursue a fashion career abroad. While traveling, Matuschka often took out her make-up and magic markers and made caricatures and cartoons of the people she met, often photographing them first with her SX-70 Polaroid camera.
In the 1970s she modeled for Fabrizio Gianni in Italy, Christian Dior in France and Scott Barrie in NYC among others. In the late 1970s, Matuschka was the house model for The House of Julio. In 1978, the courtier designer Charles James proclaimed Matuschka to be "The Model of the Future".Perich, Anton. "Charles James, Matuschka & R.Couri Hay at the Chelsea Hotel 1977." Youtube, 23 July 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAeTHyCSFuU. Accessed 2 Oct. 2017. "Matuschka is the Model of the Future," 1:58–2:04 Videographer Anton Perich frequently filmed Matuschka,Perich, Anton. "Charles James, Matuschka & R.Couri Hay at the Chelsea Hotel 1977." Youtube, 23 July 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAeTHyCSFuU. Accessed 2 Oct. 2017 and broadcasts featuring her interviews at Bonwit Teller, catwalks and fittings at the Chelsea Hotel (with Couri Hay and Charles James) and a 'couch cutting creation out of styrofoam'Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: with John Chamberlain (for the artist John R. Hersey) at the Dakota have been aired on Cable TV, Channel J, since the 1970s. Extensive video and still footage of Matuschka working with Charles James (by Anton Perich) was exhibited at the National Arts Club (NYC) in a show entitled Beneath the DressArchived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: in 2014.
In print, Matuschka has worked with some of the world's renowned photographers including Nick Knight for Dazed and Confused,Newsome, Rachel, and Nick Knight. One in Ten. Dazed, Dec. 2000, www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/4346/1/one-in-ten Accessed 2 Oct. 2017. Robert Maxwell for More Magazine and Nadav Kander for his book, Beauty's Nothing. She posed for Gerard Malanga (of Warhol's factory), Don Snyder, Push Pin Studios, Bill Cunningham (The New York Times), Jeff Dunas for Oui Magazine and was featured in Mr. Dunas' book, Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle! in 1983. In the 70s and 80s she apprenticed with Town & Country / Harper's Bazaar photographer Bill Silano, perfecting her printing skills in the darkroom.
Authorship In the mid-1970s, Matuschka began pursuing a writing career and spent many nights at Elaine's, the Carlyle Hotel, the St. Regis and P.J. Clarke's where she met and worked with a variety of writers and artists including: Salvador Dalí, Norman Wexler (who wrote Saturday Night Fever in an apartment across the hall from her flat), gonzo journalist Anthony Haden-Guest, writer, sports publisher and socialite George Plimpton, Michael O'Donoghue (Saturday Night Live), producer Bertrand Castelli, socialites Ted Otis and the Van de Bovenkamps and bestselling author Joseph DiMona. Joe DiMona introduced her to Pine Associates Literary Agency in 1978 and the father/son duo represented her intellectual properties for a brief time. Excerpts of her unpublished memoir were reprinted in three issues of OUI Magazine, a subsidiary of Playboy Magazine, in 1981. One feature included an introduction by Anthony Haden-Guest and a pictorial spread by Jeff Dunas. She received a PEN Writing grant during this time. Since the 1980s Matuschka's writings and poetry have appeared in dozens of publications and books worldwide from Glamour magazine, to Oxford anthologies and academic journals on a wide range of subjects.
Music
In the 1980s, Matuschka began combining her poetry and prose with music she wrote. As a performer she became known as "Jersey Jo Matuschka". Producer Jay Rifkin (Rain Man, The Lion King) first of Miracle Express and later Clinton Studios in NYC and Media Ventures in Los Angeles recorded, produced and worked with "Jersey Jo" and her band in the mid-to-late 80s. "Jersey Jo" performed at Trax, The Bitter End, Kenny's Castaways, The Pyramid Club and Danceteria. In 1987, she won first place in the "rock off" contest in the Dominican Republic, playing with Hilly Michaels, former drummer of Sparks. During this period Matuschka created a series of works on paper entitled Whores Galore based on the red-light district. The collection was sold out.
Photography
The Ruins – Matuschka
In 1987, Matuschka's Record Company asked her to design the cover for her album jacket. Although the company went bankrupt, Matuschka proceeded making images to illustrate her music. In the late 1980s she chose photography as her main medium after taking pictures of herself in abandoned buildings based on a song she wrote called "The Ruins".
Matuschka always works in series, typically photographing herself in a wide range of locations, different contexts and various guises. To create her photographs, Matuschka assumes numerous roles as she explores the shapes formulated by her body, the various aspects of her persona, the connection between beauty and damage, and the history of photography itself.