The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

  • About
    • Mission
    • History
    • People
    • Contact
    • FAQ
  • News
    • All
    • Foundation
    • Grantees
  • Grants
    • Overview
    • Application Guidelines
      • Curatorial Research Fellowships
      • Exhibition Support
      • Multi-year Program Support
      • FAQ
    • Grantees
    • Regional Regranting
    • Special Initiatives
  • Warhol
    • Biography
    • Catalogues Raisonnés
      • Paintings, Sculptures, and Drawings
        • Owner Questionnaire
      • Prints
      • Films
    • Licensing
      • Licensing Inquiries
    • Sales
    • Andy Warhol Museum
    • Stanford Photo Archive
    • Photographic Legacy Project

Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game

Institution
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art
Grant Cycle
Fall 2019
Amount
$100,000
Type of Grant
Exhibition Support
Website
https://www.pafa.org/museum/exhibitions/joan-semmel ↗
Joan Semmel, Zoom Lens, 1979. Oil on canvas 78 x 107 inches. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York © Joan Semmel/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Joan Semmel. Flash, 1973/1992. Oil on canvas, 68 x 78 inches. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York © Joan Semmel/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Joan Semmel, Masque, 1991. Oil on canvas, 68 x 78 inches. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York © Joan Semmel/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Joan Semmel, Unveiling, 2011. Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York © Joan Semmel/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts will be the first retrospective of the iconic artist’s work. Despite her historical significance as a figurative painter of sex, female eroticism, and the aging body since the late 1960s, the artist—now 86 years old—has never had a major survey or comprehensive catalog. Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game corrects the situation by bringing together almost 60 years of Semmel’s groundbreaking paintings; a selection of her rarely seen drawings and collages; and a robust grouping of her current work.

Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game reveals the remarkable consistency of the artist’s interest in erotic abstraction, expressive figuration, and the relationship between photography and painting. Organized chronologically, the exhibition traces her transition from early abstract expressionism to representations of the female body. In a group of seldom shown paintings from the early 1970s, Semmel applied gestural brushstrokes and bright colors to pictures of couples having sex. In this era Semmel also began to make nude paintings of herself; the dramatic cropping and foreshortened limbs of these intimate works expressed the sometimes pleasurable, sometimes alienating experience of looking at one’s own body. Next, Semmel began to photograph women at the gym, capturing their images (and often her own) in the mirror while they were absorbed in a work-out or dressing in the locker room. In a series called Overlays, she painted these middle-aged gym bodies on top of her Erotic paintings from two decades prior, creating palimpsests of evolving female forms. In the 1990s, the camera as an object of and for scrutiny made its way into her work, calling attention to the way in which all representation is mediated. Semmel’s most recent work continues her lifelong project of challenging the objectification of women’s bodies by painting – and thereby celebrating – her own aging process.

“The Warhol Foundation aims to support the full range of artistic activity in America—from exhibitions at major museums to neighborhood projects by artist collectives. Arts writers, through the range and specialization of their individual interests, touch upon all of this activity—illuminating and interrogating it and bringing it into conversation with the public. Support for artists is not complete without support for the circulation and serious consideration of their ideas. The Arts Writers Grant program keeps artists at the center of cultural dialogue and debate—in our opinion, right where they belong.”

Joel Wachs, President

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Newsletter

Andy Warhol and Andy Warhol’s signature is a registered trademark of The Andy Warhol Foundation.
All Andy Warhol artwork © The Andy Warhol Foundation.
Website design by Wkshps

Use High-Contrast Text