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“What I’m saying with the paint, I don’t think is contradictory, that the body is a sensual instrument. It’s sensual whether it’s 50-years-old, whether it’s 20-years-old – it’s still a sensual response to flesh.” —Joan Semmel
It could appear that painter Joan Semmel is suddenly everywhere, but that’d have to be just because you haven’t been paying attention. Semmel (b. 1932, New York, NY) has been making groundbreaking, innovative paintings since her earliest experiments in abstraction in the 1960s. Shifting to figuration in the 1970s, Semmel began her daring exploration of sexuality, and in the 1980s began her seminal work reflecting on the aging female body (in most cases, her own). If she seems to have leaped into greater prominence in the last several years, certainly some of the credit must also go to the relentless enthusiasm of her gallerist, Alexander Gray, where her most recent exhibition received much well-deserved praise. Now at Art Basel in the Unlimited section, a highlight amongst the few more traditional works on display is Semmel’s monumental, multi-panel painting Skin in the Game (2019), clocking in at 8’ high by 24’ wide.
In 1995, our friend Paul Tschinkel at ART/new york visited Semmel in her studio and produced a half-hour documentary featuring her at work. Here’s a clip from that feature, with Semmel discussing what painting means to her.
Posted with permission from ART/new york.
