Joan Semmel
Biography
view entire CV PDF 81 KJoan Semmel (b. New York, 1932) studied at the Cooper Union, Pratt Institute and the Art Student’s League of New York. She began her painting career in Spain and South America in the 1960s. In the early 1970s, she returned to New York, where her practice turned towards figurative paintings, many with erotic themes, in response to pornography, popular culture, and concerns around representation. Her museum shows include: Shifting the Gaze at the Jewish Museum (2010); Rebelle at the Museum of Modern Art Arnhem, The Netherlands (2009); Solitaire: Lee Lozano, Sylvia Mangold Plimack, Joan Semmel at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2008); and the touring exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Movement, MoCA, Los Angeles (2007).
Semmel's paintings are part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Blanton Museum, Austin, TX; Newport Beach Art Museum, CA; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; the Jocelyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE; the Jewish Museum, New York; and the Brooklyn Museum.
She is the recipient of numerous grants, including Anonymous Was a Woman and the National Endowment for the Arts awards. She is Professor Emeritus of Painting at Rutgers University.
About her work, Semmel has noted, “Much of the revolutionary nature of Feminist art has been a seeking for new forms to invent a voice free of the dominant patriarchal tradition of the past. I have tried to find a contemporary language in which I could retain my delight in the sensuality and pleasure of painting, and still confront the particulars of my own personal experience as a woman. My intention has been to subvert the tradition of the passive female nude. The issues of the body from desire to aging, as well as those of identity and cultural imprinting have been at the core of my concerns. Sexuality for women has changed radically in the last century, and the possibility for female autonomy is connected to these changes.”
Articles / Reviews
- Semmel ARTnews May 2012 PDF 1.2 MB
- Semmel The Columbus Dispatch PDF 107 K
- Semmel Art in America August 27, 2011 PDF 37 K
- Semmel ArtInfo August 17, 2011 PDF 2.2 MB
- Semmel Artforum Summer 2011 PDF 2.9 MB
- Semmel The New York Times May 5, 2011 PDF 70 K
- Semmel Artforum May 1, 2011 PDF 115 K
- Semmel The New Yorker April 29, 2011 PDF 186 K
- Semmel The Huffington Post April 27, 2011 PDF 182 K
- Semmel Artnet April 22, 2011 PDF 1.9 MB
- Semmel ARTnews December 2010 PDF 171 K
- Semmel The New York Times September 10, 2010 PDF 142 K
- Semmel The New York Times August 21, 2009 PDF 60 K
- Semmel TimeOut New York August 2009 PDF 52 K
- Semmel Artforum July 2009 PDF 66 K
- Semmel The New York Times August 26, 2007 PDF 278 K
- Semmel The New York Times August 24, 2007 PDF 80 K
- Semmel The New York Times March 9, 2007 PDF 87 K
- Semmel Artforum Summer 2007 PDF 134 K
- Semmel The New York Times January 8, 2006 PDF 113 K
- Semmel Time Off December 23, 2005 PDF 5 MB
- Semmel The Star Ledger December 23, 2005 PDF 328 K
- Semmel Time Off December 23, 2005 PDF 5 MB
- Semmel Town Topics December 21, 2005 PDF 175 K
- Semmel Home News Tribune December 15, 2005 PDF 109 K
- Semmel Art in America January 2004 PDF 4.8 MB
- Semmel Art Lies Fall 2003 PDF 343 K
- Semmel The New York Times October 11, 2002 PDF 88 K
- Semmel Salzburger Nachrichten August 2000 PDF 454 K
- Semmel The New York Times June 30, 2000 PDF 171 K
- Semmel The New York Times May 21, 2000 PDF 292 K
- Semmel Art Monthly April 2000 PDF 343 K
- Semmel Artforum December 1999 PDF 578 K
- Semmel Art in America November 1999 PDF 4.7 MB
- Semmel The New Yorker September 6, 1999 PDF 314 K
- Semmel Mitchell Algus Gallery September 1999 PDF 154 K
- Semmel The New York Times August 27, 1999 PDF 98 K
- Semmel TimeOut New York August 19, 1999 PDF 71 K
- Semmel The New York Times August 6, 1999 PDF 107 K
- Semmel The Village Voice July 27, 1999 PDF 143 K
- Semmel The New York Times May 31, 1998 PDF 151 K
- Semmel Art in America January 1988 PDF 167 K
- Semmel Woman's Art Journal Fall 1995 PDF 585 K
- Semmel Art Journal Spring 1994 PDF 510 K
- Semmel The Power of Feminist Art 1994 PDF 357 K
- Semmel Art in America December 1993 PDF 105 K
- Semmel The New York Times May 23, 1993 PDF 168 K
- Semmel New Directions for Women May 1993 PDF 93 K
- Semmel The Village Voice March 9, 1993 PDF 119 K
- Semmel Sunday Times Union March 22, 1992 PDF 152 K
- Semmel Metroland March 19, 1992 PDF 203 K
- Semmel The Times Union March 19, 1992 PDF 243 K
- Semmel Through the Object's Eye 1992 PDF 218 K
- Semmel Art Papers November 1991 PDF 104 K
- Semmel The New York Times July 7, 1991 PDF 307 K
- Semmel Newsday July 14, 1989 PDF 147 K
- Semmel The New York Times June 11, 1989 PDF 316 K
- Semmel The New York Times May 21, 1989 PDF 216 K
- Semmel Easthampton Center of Art Catalogue Essay Summer 1989 PDF 3.6 MB
- Semmel Exposures: Women & Their Art 1989 PDF 287 K
- Semmel ARTnews December 1988 PDF 258 K
- Semmel The New York Times May 10, 1987 PDF 422 K
- Semmel Newsday May 8, 1987 PDF 428 K
- Semmel Art News Summer 1987 PDF 1.5 MB
- Semmel Connoisseur Magazine March 1985 PDF 202 K
- Semmel Art in America November 1984 PDF 302 K
- Semmel Arts Magazine May 1984 PDF 1 MB
- Semmel The New York Times July 6, 1980 PDF 2.1 MB
- Semmel Art in America March 1980 PDF 2.8 MB
- Semmel The Soho Weekly News November 22, 1979 PDF 304 K
- Semmel Arts Magazine November 1978 PDF 394 K
- Semmel The Soho Weekly News April 27, 1978 PDF 325 K
- Semmel The Nation December 1977 PDF 458 K
- Semmel Houston Chronicle July 8, 1977 PDF 4.8 MB
- Semmel The Soho Weekly News March 17, 1977 PDF 3.4 MB
- Semmel Feminist Art Journal Summer 1977 PDF 1.1 MB
- Semmel WomanArt Magazine Spring 1977 PDF 132 K
- Semmel Arts Magazine October 1975 PDF 323 K
- Semmel The Soho Weekly News May 15, 1975 PDF 203 K
- Semmel The New York Magazine February 11, 1974 PDF 665 K
- Semmel The Village Voice/The Nation/Art Rite 1973 PDF 255 K