Works on Paper: 1960s–present

Joan Semmel’s recent drawings continue her decades-long engagement with her own naked body as subject but from an approach of improvisational gesture. While her paintings are worked up in layers of color with diverse approaches to paint handling, the drawings place primacy on the immediacy of oil crayon on paper. With the emphasis on line, Semmel concentrates on the form of the figure, and on the broad range of shapes that it comprises. In some works she employs transparency to explore the overlapping of multiple figures and marks. Her drawings reveal the underlying structures of her paintings at the same time that they constitute a separate investigation of color and line.