At 93, Joan Semmel's Trailblazing Nudes Continue to Challenge Art World Norms
In the vibrant heart of New York's SoHo district, 93-year-old painter Joan Semmel continues to create groundbreaking work that has challenged art world conventions for over five decades. Her sun-drenched studio, where she has worked since 1970, serves as the creative hub for her upcoming dual exhibition Continuities, opening simultaneously at Alexander Gray Associates in New York and Xavier Hufkens in Brussels in April 2026.
A Lifetime of Authentic Representation
Semmel's artistic journey represents a remarkable evolution from abstract expressionism to the bold figurative work that established her as a feminist pioneer. "I didn't want to objectify women; I wanted a real body," Semmel explains, articulating the philosophy that has guided her career since the 1970s. Her paintings, which feature her own nude body as model for more than fifty years, deliberately reject idealized forms in favor of authentic representation.
The works in Continuities, created during Semmel's tenth decade, showcase her unflinching approach to depicting aging bodies. "Obviously, I age," Semmel states matter-of-factly. "If I'm going to do something authentic, it's going to show that." Pieces like Here I Am (2025) present the artist seated in a familiar Eames chair, her gaze directed outward in a composition that balances presence with introspection.
From Rejection to Retrospective Recognition
Semmel's path to recognition has been anything but straightforward. In 1973, when galleries refused to show her large-scale erotic paintings depicting heterosexual couples, she took matters into her own hands by renting a storefront on Prince Street. "It was my FU moment," she recalls with a chuckle. "It was not a thing that was looked upon with favor at the time."
Her monumental triptych Mythologies and Me (1976), which juxtaposed her work with parodies of a Playboy centerfold and Willem de Kooning's Woman, was initially rejected by museums. "How was I different from either one of these images that are given to me as a way I'm supposed to be?" she questioned at the time. "I painted my answer." Today, that same work features prominently in her retrospective at the Jewish Museum, highlighting the dramatic shift in institutional acceptance.
Political Consciousness and Artistic Evolution
Semmel's artistic development has been deeply intertwined with her political consciousness. After spending the 1960s in Spain, where she witnessed firsthand the restrictions imposed on women by patriarchal, conservative Catholic culture, she returned to New York as a single mother of two in 1970. There, she immersed herself in SoHo's vibrant art community, joining feminist agitation groups alongside artists like Anita Steckel, Judith Bernstein, and Hannah Wilke.
This period marked a significant stylistic shift from abstraction to figuration. "Everything in my life had shifted around, so it was a natural change," she explains. Her erotic series aimed to create what she calls an "erotic visual language" that liberated the nude from both academic tradition and pornography while granting women sexual agency.
The Self-Image Revolution
By 1974, Semmel had turned the camera on herself, creating what she calls Self Images that predated the selfie phenomenon by decades. "I didn't want to objectify another woman," she emphasizes. Her highly realistic, foreshortened compositions recast flesh into landscape, with the subject appearing to observe herself. "You're looking at me while I'm looking at you," Semmel notes. "I like to play with who is viewed and who is the viewer."
For her current series, an assistant photographs Semmel as she moves along her studio wall, with light and shadow becoming integral compositional elements. Despite physical limitations that have required adjustments to her scale and working position, Semmel maintains an impressive creative output of at least one painting per month. "I don't really get blocked, I'm too compulsive," she admits. "If I don't work, I'm not happy."
Contemporary Relevance and Future Directions
While pleased that her early work now receives institutional recognition, Semmel expresses mixed feelings about its continued relevance. "It's strange because they always want that work that nobody would show," she observes. "While I'm glad that it's still relevant for me, professionally, I had hoped that we'd be in some other place, culturally."
The artist remains deeply concerned about contemporary political developments affecting gender equality. "I'm happy that there are younger women now who seem to understand that they have to fight for what they want," she says. "It's really important for women to understand that their lives are at stake. Seriously, we're almost at The Handmaid's Tale."
Despite these concerns, Semmel continues to look forward, already planning her next exhibition. Her work stands as a testament to decades of artistic integrity and feminist commitment, challenging viewers to reconsider conventional representations of the female body while celebrating the authenticity of lived experience across the lifespan.
