Joan Snyder's incandescent expressionist paintings have long been 'œrelegated to the subcategory of 'women's art,'' said Ariella Budick in Newsday. Snyder came of age in the 1970s, when other artists, especially female ones, were reacting to the harsh austerity of minimalism and the macho posturing of abstract expressionism. But as this focused show of 30-odd paintings makes clear, 'œher concerns are universal and her talent luminous.' She conveys rage and sensuality, exultation and melancholy, in equal measure. One early piece, Lines and Strokes (1969), sums up and predicts her career. Fat mauve and apricot brush strokes seep across the canvas, full of a 'œdrive to communicate feeling.'
Snyder is simply 'œone of the strongest abstract painters working today,' said Lance Esplund in The New York Sun. She has an intuitive feel for color and texture. But she is able to balance her lyrical, confessional paintings with a rougher, more elemental side, affixing organic materials—mud, herbs, silk, straw—to the canvas and running her brushes over them. The small, green-and-orange Beanfield With Music for Molly (1984) is 'œas intimate as a love letter,' while plastered on Oratorio (1997) are nails, a sunflower, and zebra stripes across 10 feet of canvas. Snyder has talked often about the touchstones of some of her more politically charged works: the Holocaust, AIDS, women's and gay rights, Sept. 11. But her 'œbest paintings are powerful not because of their subjects, but in spite of them.' A slash of red can look like a wound that belongs to anyone.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.