J. & C. (1962) was created during Schneemann’s marriage to James Tenney. In the painting, she balances gestural brushwork with evocative text and mixed media. The rare early painting is exemplary of Schneemann’s aim to push painting beyond the canvas. The physical action of her pasting images and using found objects in paintings, transitioned to a wide variety of media. Breaking free from the traditional trajectory of a painter, Schneemann began positioning her own body in her work using the assemblages in her groundbreaking performances.

In this period of painting, Schneemann stated:
“The materials I use in a painting-construction or a concretion evade their usual utilitarian context; deflecting, reflecting, expanding relationships – these materials become ambiguous as prehensile tools. I work towards metaphors of sensation a dramatization of loss and recovery, of movement in time and space.”