3/6 Joan Semmel in the Flesh- The Jewish Museum

Joan Semmel in the Flesh at the Jewish Museum Review

Stella Kowalsky 

      Joan Semmel in the Flesh at The Jewish Museum has probably been my favorite show we have seen in this class. Each painting feels like a specific and intimate surveillance on the female identity in a way that I’ve never seen before. Specifically Sunlight really caught my attention. We look down onto a relaxed woman whose body fills nearly the entire composition, which is cropped in an almost uncomfortable way. We see intertwined legs, arms, and the curve of the torso, but very little context about the environment around her. This framing creates an intense but intimate perspective, as if the viewer has intruded on that moment but not in a scary way. Her posture suggests a moment of breath, lack of stress and awareness of anyone seeing her. Her body isn’t staged for anyone’s enjoyment but it’s beautiful nonetheless.   

 

       The choice of realism, the warm tones of skin in every piece, textures of folds of fabric, and the relaxed but vulnerable postures emphasizes a moment of rest in every scene. Because the viewer is in such a close and dominant position, they become ambiguous of whether or not we are truly intruding, or being welcomed into the moment. I think each painting does a beautiful job at evoking peace and comfort. As a woman, I really haven’t seen us represented in this soft way but I think once it is through a female artist's lens it really does change how we treat our own bodies.