Session 8: Seeking Beauty in Chance
Joan Snitzer
Material Qualities + Experimentation
Joan Snizter, Diamond #47, 51” x 51”, vinyl, pigment, polymer emulsion and oil on Canvas, 2020
Monday, April 19, 2021, 9 am EST
Webinar Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84592197420
Webinar ID: 845 9219 7420
Joan Snitzer, Diamond #48, 51” x 51”, vinyl, pigment, polymer emulsion and oil on Canvas, 2020
In this session, Joan Snitzer will discuss painting related to a western tradition of gift culture dating back to the 17th century in the Netherlands. Beginning with Tulip Mania” as an early quest for beauty and ownership to our current commodity-driven art market, artists often make and receive gifts in a space overlapping with creativity and spirituality. How can chance can provide for the artist’s need to separate their works from just things to a process that documents a “lifetime.” Joan will provide images of her own work as well as examples of artworks created by others.
Suggested Reading:
Lewis Hyde, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property, Vintage Books, 1979, Chapter 1. PP 3-24
Isabelle Graw, Painting beyond itself: the medium in the post-medium condition, Sternberg Press, 2016, PP 79-103, The Value of Liveliness: Painting as an Index of Agency in the New Economy
Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches, Vintage Books, 1987, Housewives and Hussies: Homeliness and Worldliness, PP 375-430
Joan Snitzer‘s artwork focuses on painting as a visual communication method and the democratization of social and personal beliefs. Her recent work uses the medium of paint to articulate current social moods and memories. Her works have been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, PS1 MoMA, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, David Nolan Gallery, 2B Gallery in Budapest, The Museum of Arts and Crafts in Japan, and the Galeria Ajolote Contemporaneo in Mexico, in addition to many others in the U.S. and abroad. Her works are held in many notable public and private collections, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Prudential Life Insurance Company, I.B.M. Snitzer is an educator and mentor to numerous emerging artists. She remains committed to the non-profit world and has implemented many programs for developing and under-represented artists. In 1980 she founded and directed the A.I.M. program at the Bronx Museum, a museum exhibition and seminar program designed to aid artists in their developing careers, now in its 40th year. Snitzer is a current member of A.I.R. Gallery, the oldest running women’s art collective and exhibition space in the United States. She is also Co-Chair & Director of the Visual Arts Department of Art History at Barnard College/Columbia University.