Object Label
Buried Images emphasizes Joan Snyder’s recurring brushstrokes as well as her methods of dripping, smearing, and staining paint on canvas, and the work represents a new, more narrative direction after her critically acclaimed body of abstract “stroke paintings.” In this painting, Snyder alludes to autobiographical markers, suggesting additional readings beyond expressive abstraction. Layers of paint and adhered textiles reveal and obscure symbols of birth, loss, and children, as well as home, nature, and travel.
A Brooklyn-based feminist artist, in 1971 Snyder founded the Mary H. Dana Women Artist Series, an exhibition space at Rutgers University, New Jersey, in order to make visible the work of contemporary women artists.
Caption
Joan Snyder American, born 1940. Buried Images, 1978. Mixed media on canvas, 48 × 96 in. (121.9 × 243.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Marjorie Phillips Elliott, James L. Phillips, and Alice Phillips Swistel, 2019.6. © artist or artist's estate
Tags
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Artist
Title
Buried Images
Date
1978
Medium
Mixed media on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
48 × 96 in. (121.9 × 243.8 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Marjorie Phillips Elliott, James L. Phillips, and Alice Phillips Swistel
Accession Number
2019.6
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
Tell me more.
This work by Joan Snyder blends techniques of abstract expressionism with landscape painting. She says, "What is exciting for me is putting all those elements together and having them actually work."Snyder's work is deeply personal, often inspired by her own life experiences. When looking for inspiration, she says, "I had nowhere to go but into my own past again, into my own iconography."In this work you can find "buried images" of a house, a ship, and palm trees, among the more abstract drips and strokes of paint.Tell me more.
This work by Joan Snyder blends abstraction and landscape painting. Did you notice the trees and house along the bottom of the painting?Yes!Snyder and other women artists of her generation were pushing back against the idea that art should be ONLY abstract or ONLY representation. She was also drawing on her own life experience and memories to inform her work in a very direct way.She says of making art based on her experience, "I had nowhere to go but into my own past again, into my own iconography."Very cool. Thanks so much!!
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