Joan Snyder

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Joan Snyder
Born (1940-04-16) April 16, 1940 (age 83)
NationalityAmerican
EducationDouglass College, Rutgers University
Known forPainting
SpouseMargaret "Maggie" Cammer
AwardsMacArthur Fellow;
Guggenheim Fellow;
National Endowment for the Arts Fellow;
Arts & Letters Award in Art Recipient

Joan Snyder (born April 16, 1940) is an American painter from New York. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow (1974).[1]

Snyder first gained public attention in the early 1970s with her gestural and elegant "stroke paintings," which used the grid to deconstruct and retell the story of abstract painting. By the late seventies, Snyder had abandoned the formality of the grid. She began more explicitly incorporating symbols and text, as the paintings took on a more complex materiality. These early works were included in the 1973 and 1981 Whitney Biennials and the 1975 Corcoran Biennial.

Often referred to as an autobiographical or confessional artist, Snyder's paintings are narratives of both personal and communal experiences.[2] Through a fiercely individual approach and persistent experimentation with technique and materials,[3] Snyder has extended the expressive potential of abstract painting, inspiring generations of emerging artists.

Snyder currently lives and works in Brooklyn and Woodstock, New York.

Early life and education[edit]

Joan Snyder was born on April 16, 1940, in Highland Park, New Jersey. She received her BA in Sociology,[4] from Douglass College in 1962 and her MFA from Rutgers University in 1966.

Personal life[edit]

In 1969, Snyder married photographer Larry Fink. She gave birth to their daughter, Molly, in 1979. They were divorced in 1985.[5] Her grandson Elijah was born in 2012.

In 2011, Snyder married her partner of 28 years, Margaret Cammer, a retired New York State Acting Supreme Court Judge and the former NY Deputy Administrative Judge of The New York City Civil Court.

Work[edit]

While living on a New Jersey farm in 1962, Snyder worked in a studio on the Raritan River in New Brunswick, creating some of her earliest paintings of farm and landscape scenes, as well as expressionist portraits. In the mid to late 60's she was working explicitly with the idea of female sensibility, using materials in her paintings such as lentil seeds, flocking, thread, glitter and gauze. Snyder describes her processes involving non-art materials as a type of ritual act for the painting.[4] Snyder's ideas often take form in her paintings through other means other than paint such as music, poetry and words to further push the intent of her pieces.[4] These works eventually led to Snyder's seminal stroke paintings in the late 60's and early '70's. Snyder worked alongside artists such as Mary Heilmann, Jennifer Bartlett and Harriet Korman during the 1960s, all of whom were attempting to bring more process into their art making.[6]

Stroke paintings[edit]

Creek Square (1974) at the National Gallery of Art in 2022, an example of the artist's stroke paintings.

In the early 1970s, Snyder began to explore paint as subject, reconstructing abstract painting through gestural strokes on canvas over a gridded background. These paintings, more commonly known as her 'stroke' paintings, were included in the 1973 and 1981 Whitney Biennials as well as the Corcoran Biennial in 1975.

Following the stroke paintings in the mid 70s, Snyder's work once again revisited female sensibility and the work more vigorously explored materiality. By the late 70s she abandoned the formality of the grid and began to more explicitly incorporate symbols and text in her paintings.[7]

The feminist movement[edit]

In 1971, Snyder founded the Mary H. Dana Women Artist Series, "the oldest continuous running exhibition space in the United States dedicated to making visible the work of emerging and established contemporary women artists."[8]

She was a founding member of Heresies, a Feminist Publication On Art and Politics, alongside artists and critics including Ida Applebroog, Joyce Kozloff, Lucy Lippard, Nina Yankowitz, Joan Braderman, Sue Heinemann and Miriam Schapiro, among many others.

Awards[edit]

Snyder is the recipient of a 1974 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship,[9] a 1983 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, a 2007 MacArthur Fellowship,[10] and a 2016 Arts & Letters Award in Art[11] from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

Collections[edit]

Snyder's work can be found in many public collections including:

References[edit]

  1. ^ Making their mark : women artists move into the mainstream, 1970-85. Rosen, Randy., Brawer, Catherine Coleman., Cincinnati Art Museum. (1st ed.). New York: Abbeville Press. 1989. ISBN 0-89659-958-2. OCLC 18259773.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. ^ "Joan Snyder - Reviews - Art in America". www.artinamericamagazine.com. Archived from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  3. ^ "Snyder's earth, Freud's skin". www.newcriterion.com. Archived from the original on July 9, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c Chou, Mary (2017). "Snyder, Joan". Grove Art Online. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2022028.
  5. ^ "Joan Snyder | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Archived from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  6. ^ Smith, Roberta (August 12, 1994). "ART REVIEW; Building on the Bare, Bare Bones". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 23, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  7. ^ "MoMA - Speaking with Joan Snyder about Sweet Cathy's Song (1978)". www.moma.org. Archived from the original on April 8, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  8. ^ "Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series | Rutgers University Libraries". www.libraries.rutgers.edu. Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  9. ^ https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/NEA-Annual-Report-1974.pdf Archived May 19, 2020, at the Wayback Machine National Endowment for the Arts Annual Report 1974, Page 109
  10. ^ "2007 MacArthur Fellow: Joan Snyder". www.macfound.org. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  11. ^ "American Academy of Arts and Letters - Art Awards Press Release". www.artsandletters.org. Archived from the original on March 26, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  12. ^ Snyder, Joan (1970), Summer, archived from the original on December 6, 2021, retrieved December 6, 2021
  13. ^ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  14. ^ "Symphony III - DMA Collection Online". www.dma.org. Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  15. ^ Harvard. "Harvard Art Museums". harvardartmuseums.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  16. ^ "Symphony for Felicia". High Museum of Art. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  17. ^ "The Jewish Museum". thejewishmuseum.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  18. ^ "Search the Collection | the Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  19. ^ "Results – Advanced Search Objects – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston". collections.mfa.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  20. ^ "Joan Snyder | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  21. ^ "Artist Info". www.nga.gov. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  22. ^ "Joan Snyder". www.phillipscollection.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  23. ^ "Digital Collection | The Rose Art Museum | Brandeis University - Joan Snyder". rosecollection.brandeis.edu. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  24. ^ "Snyder, Joan". SFMOMA. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  25. ^ "Collections Database". museums.fivecolleges.edu. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  26. ^ "Joan Snyder". Tang Teaching Museum. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  27. ^ Tate. "Joan Snyder born 1940". Tate. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  28. ^ "Snyder, Joan | University of Arizona Museum of Art". Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  29. ^ "Joan Snyder". whitney.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  30. ^ "Small Symphony for Women". Wichita Art Museum. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
  31. ^ "Results – Search Objects – Zimmerli Art Museum". zimmerli.emuseum.com. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.

External links[edit]