Letty with a Y, sometimes an E, or Lichtenstein’s girlfriend

Throughout the 1960s, Douglass College art student Lette Eisenhauer was game for any performance. She was the it girl for artists to call upon when they sought to feature a beautiful woman in their wild, sometimes dangerous, compositions. Dick Higgins, Allan Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg, Benjamin Patterson, they all turned to her. Often appearing nude and silent, Eisenhauer has rarely been acknowledged for her role within these performances, and even less for her influence on their makers. Following an intense period of steady collaboration, she dropped out of the art world completely. This paper explores Eisenhauer’s complex artistic identity, or lack thereof, and argues for her significance within the history of postwar performance. Specifically, I consider how one can be the activator of a piece while their labor appears to be de-emphasized, or even go unrecognized. How can a figure be both central to a work and exist on the periphery?