Plastic Grapes and Painted Notes: Joan Snyder’s Riot of Color and Feminism in London
A bunch of plastic grapes glued to a canvas isn’t the first thing most expect from a celebrated feminist painter, but Joan Snyder’s Body & Soul (1997–98) thrives on the unexpected. This vibrant work, now headlining her London retrospective, refuses to settle into a single style or story—its patchwork of textures, collaged fabrics, and bold brushstrokes pulses with energy and contradiction.
Snyder’s journey into art was anything but typical: raised in a working-class New Jersey family with little exposure to museums, she stumbled into painting while studying sociology. Her early works, often textured with crushed rayon and abstract forms, hinted at the female body and challenged the minimalist trends of her time. By the 1970s, her expressive “stroke” paintings drew critical acclaim, but Snyder soon shifted again, weaving autobiography, craft, and feminist themes into her canvases.
Today, her paintings still blend text, found objects, and music-inspired rhythms, each piece a testament to decades of reinvention. Snyder’s art insists on being seen—and felt—in all its unruly, soulful glory.
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