JOAN SNYDER

"Seedcatchers Floating", 2007

Ink on paper

Unframed: 8 x 11 inches (20.3 x 27.9 cm)

Framed: 11 ¾ x 14 ¾ inches (28.6 x 36.2 cm)

Courtesy of the Artist

Selected by Julia Trotta 

Born April 16, 1940 in Highland Park, NJ, Joan Snyder received her AB from Douglass College in 1962 and her MFA from Rutgers University in 1966. Snyder has been the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1983 and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1974. She 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 mid-70s she began to incorporate symbols and text, as the paintings took on a more complex materiality. She is often referred to as an autobiographical or confessional artist. Nature and the landscape have always been another strong focus of her work. Through a fiercely individual approach and persistent experimentation with technique and materials, 

Snyder has extended the expressive potential of abstract painting and inspired generations of emerging artists. Snyder’s recent exhibitions include her solo exhibition ComeClose at CANADA, NYC; current group exhibition Expanded Horizons: American Art in the 70s at Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris; and a solo exhibition Joan Snyder: Body & Soul including works from 1964-2024 at Thaddaeus Ropac, London opening in November 2024.