Joan Semmell is a 91-year American feminist painter, professor, and writer.. She has established a 50+ year painting career focused on the female figure. Semmell is best known for her large-scale realistic nude self-portraits.
Semmel began her artistic training at Cooper Union and the Art Students League of New York; she earned both a BFA and MFA from the Pratt Institute. She moved to Spain and spent seven-plus years there, where her work evolved from broad gestural to figure composition.
When Semmel returned to New York City in the seventies, she was shocked by the sexualized images of women everywhere and became involved in the feminist movement; her art took on that theme as well. She began to paint in a figurative style, incorporating the erotic themes for which she is known today.
We especially appreciate Semmel’s career-long dedication to the female figure, her own as well as others…and even mannequins.
Semmel has numerous series – Erotic Series, Beach Series, Locker Room Series et al– but we are most interested in herMannequins Series, 1996–2001. She became inspired by old mannequins she found on the street and Semmel worked with what she called “idealized versions of the female body.”
The worn out faces, broken parts, and empty armholes were tangible evidence of the way women were valued for their youth and beauty, then discarded as powerless and no longer wanted
Ever the feminist, Semmel’s Transparencies series, 2014–ongoing, uses mostly her own body to reflect the aging female physique.
Semmel’s works can be found in private collections, museums, and galleries.
