---

The Juilliard-trained cellist Charlotte Moorman sat nude behind a cello of carved ice, performed while dangling from helium-filled balloons, and deployed an array of instruments on The Mike Douglas Show that included her cello, a whistle, a cap gun, a gong, and a belch. She did a striptease while playing Bach in Nam June Paik´s Sonata for Adults Only. In the 1960s, Moorman (1933-1991) became famous for her madcap (and often unclothed) performance antics; less famous but more significant is Moorman´s transformative influence on contemporary performance practice--and her dedication to the idea that avant-garde art should reach the widest possible audience. In Topless Cellist, the first book to explore Moorman´s life and work, Joan Rothfuss rediscovers, and recovers, the legacy of an extraordinary American artist.

---

"Ms. Rothfuss has written not just a fine biography of an absorbing character but a necessary one - a closely researched tale of a life in art where all was fleetingly possible. The illustrations, needless to add, are exhilarating." - Norman Lebrecht, Wall Street Journal

---

Joan Rothfuss is an independent writer and curator based in Minneapolis.

---