Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art presents a retrospective of Joan Semmel's work

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art presents a retrospective of Joan Semmel's work
Joan Semmel, Flash, 1973/1992. Oil on canvas. 68 x 78 in (172.7 x 198 cm).



ITHACA, NY.- Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game, a retrospective of the artist’s six-decade career is on view now at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY from July 2 through August 21, 2022.

For sixty years, Joan Semmel (American, born 1932) has steadfastly pursued her “self” through painting. She is finally, with this exhibition, having her first retrospective.

Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game traces her career from early abstract expressionist paintings through her movement-defining feminist art and activism to the vital work that she is making of her own mature body today. The exhibition includes nearly thirty of her groundbreaking paintings and drawings, which together show the remarkable continuity and assiduity of her practice—evidencing Semmel’s key role in the history of art in the United States from the late 1960s to today. This includes a robust grouping of her current work, which foregrounds her still very active studio practice in the exhibition.

Semmel began her career in the 1960s as an abstract expressionist painter in Spain. Dismayed by the prevalence of sexual images of women in mass media that she encountered upon her return to New York in the early 1970s, Semmel transitioned into a more representational style of painting, creating exuberant images of sexual encounters from her decidedly female point of view.

Semmel is best known for exploring a female perspective in art through nude paintings of herself, beginning in the 1970s and continuing today. According to the artist, “I was interested in how my position as a woman affected my choices as an artist. I couldn’t possibly relate the same way as a man would, for instance, to the genre of the nude. By using myself as the model those differences immediately became self-evident.” Despite feeling marginalized by the art establishment, Semmel insisted that figurative, expressionist painting was relevant in the late twentieth century. Her work reflects the ongoing struggle for women’s equal representation and power to make decisions about their own bodies and sexuality while centering female empowerment through the self.

In recognition of her still very active studio practice, the exhibition begins and ends with the artist’s most recent work, revealing one of the unique aspects of Semmel’s work—that each painting is an aggregate of those that came before it. This has never been more apparent than in her recent work where one notes the presence of her abstract paintings in the 1960s; the transfer from photographs of her body into paint; and the use of expressionist, non-naturalistic color that she began in the early 1970s.

Semmel’s career is defined by new beginnings—a continual shifting that celebrates change and difference, but always returns to the self.

Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game was curated by Jodi Throckmorton and organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, America’s First Museum and Art School located in Center City Philadelphia.










Today's News

July 7, 2022

Her 'Chagall' is headed for the trash. How's that for caveat emptor?

U.K. museums face a sticky problem from climate protests

Cortesi Gallery presents four generative artists whose artistic research focuses on the creative process and movement

dan guz man opens "The Rise of the Observed" at Armario916: Interview part III

MSU Broad Art Museum announces Interim Director Steven L. Bridges

San Antonio Museum of Art announces new acquisition

With rising book bans, librarians have come under attack

Fridman Gallery and Voloshyn Gallery present 'Women at War'

Academy Museum appoints Jacqueline Stewart as Director and President

Newly discovered Stubbs dog portrait sells at Bonhams Old Master Paintings sale

Online exhibition at Janet Rady Fine Art considers the beauty of nature

Philbrook hosts major Frida Kahlo exhibition

Design Exhibition Scotland reveals new park bench designs at Mount Stuart

A conductor's career, cut short, still blazes on recordings

British - Iranian artist Hana Shahnavaz creates new work for long-awaited Jeff Bridges spy drama, FX's The Old Man

70 years on: Helsinki revitalises its 1952 Olympic sites, leading the way in circular architecture

Azikiwe Mohammed's 'Forever is Twice as Long from the Ground' opens at Anna Zorina Gallery

Heritage holds a blockbuster auction featuring props, scripts and costumes from producer Joel Silver's Collection

Director of The Musée des Arts Décoratifs Olivier Gabet leaves to join the Musée du Louvre

El Ultimo Grito creates an exhibition proposal for Bombas Gens Centre d'Art

New exhibition at Isaac Bell House revisits the full-length portrait

MCA Australia and Tate announce new joint acquisitions

Art Gallery of Burlington announces appointment of new Executive Director

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art presents a retrospective of Joan Semmel's work

The Best Outreach Sales Automation Tools

Amazing New Discovery Could Help People Cope With Addiction Cravings

7 PRECIOUS TIPS FOR A MOTHER OF THE BRIDE THAT NO ONE WILL TELL

A Beginner's Guide to Art History




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

sa gaming free credit
Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful