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Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Chantal Joffe

May 1 – Oct. 25, 2015

Hannah, Gertrude, Alice, Betty, Nadine, Golda, Susan, Claude, Nancy, Grace, Diane…..  is a series of forty portraits by London-based painter Chantal Joffe, which will hang salon-style throughout the lobby of the Jewish Museum.

Joffe has long focused on portraiture and, for this new body of work, she explores Jewish women of the 20th century. Personages who made major contributions to art, literature, philosophy and politics such as Diane Arbus, Nancy Spero, Gertrude A. Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Susan Sontag, and Hannah Arendt are represented as both children and adults. Implicitly included here are the women who perished during the Shoah, whose creativity and intellect were lost to history.

Joffe’s style is direct and gestural. These are not exact or “true” depictions but charged with the artist’s technical, conceptual, and emotional responses. Joffe is typically well acquainted with her subjects, but as this group is no longer with us, she had to look further to find vital connections which spurred the creation of the work. She conducted months of research, gathering both well-known and obscure texts and images. Through this slow process of looking, reading, and watching, she built worlds around herself and the women, whom she has represented at various stages in their lives, during moments both big and small. Bringing together these historical figures creates a universal family album, a tribute to their contributions as well as inspiration for all those in the present, still able to leave their mark.

About Lobby Artist Commissions

Since 2013, artists from around the globe have been invited to create new art or adapt a work for placement in the entrance lobby. The project builds upon Using Walls, a 1970 exhibition of commissioned artworks installed both within and beyond the gallery space of the Museum’s Warburg Mansion. That series, curated by Susan Tumarkin Goodman, began with the premise that the wall is not just a surface on which to display a work of art, but can be a component of it. Among the participating artists were Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle, Mel Bochner, and Richard Artschwager.

This exhibition series is organized by Kelly Taxter, the Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art, The Jewish Museum.

Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Chantal Joffe is organized by Jens Hoffmann, Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Public Programs, and Kelly Taxter, Assistant Curator.

Installation view of the exhibition Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Chantal Joffe, May 1-October 18, 2015. The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo by: David Heald.

Exhibition highlights

  • Chantal Joffe, Betty Friedan, 2014. Oil on canvas, 16 ⅛ × 11 ¾ × ¾ in. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

    Chantal Joffe, Betty Friedan, 2014. Oil on canvas, 16 ⅛ × 11 ¾ × ¾ in. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

  • Chantal Joffe, Susan Sontag, 2014. Oil on board, 8 ¼ × 11 ⅛ × ⅜ in. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

    Chantal Joffe, Susan Sontag, 2014. Oil on board, 8 ¼ × 11 ⅛ × ⅜ in. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

  • Chantal Joffe, Diane Arbus, 2014. Oil on board, 15 ¾ × 11 ¾ × ⅜ in. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

    Chantal Joffe, Diane Arbus, 2014. Oil on board, 15 ¾ × 11 ¾ × ⅜ in. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

  • Chantal Joffe, Gertrude Stein, 2014. Oil on canvas, 21 ⅝ × 18 ⅛ × 1 in. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

    Chantal Joffe, Gertrude Stein, 2014. Oil on canvas, 21 ⅝ × 18 ⅛ × 1 in. Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

  • Chantal Joffe, Golda Meir, 2014. Oil on board, 8 ¼ × 11 ⅛ × ⅜ in Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York

    Chantal Joffe, Golda Meir, 2014. Oil on board, 8 ¼ × 11 ⅛ × ⅜ in Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London. © Chantal Joffe. Courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro, London and Cheim & Read, New York