Judith Bernstein, Joan Semmel, and Joyce Kozloff will take part in a Feminist Art Roundtable at the Jewish Museum
Who: Joan Semmel, Joyce Kozloff, Judith Bernstein, Rachel Corbett
What: Feminist Art Roundtable
Where: The Jewish Museum, Scheuer Auditorium, 1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
When: Thursday, March 26, $14-$24, 6:30
Why: On New Year’s Eve, I attended a small dinner party in the West Village, where among the other invitees was painter extraordinaire Joan Semmel, whose brilliant exhibition “In the Flesh” is on view at the Jewish Museum through May 31, and the marvelous Joyce Kozloff, whose stunning cartographic works have been on display in such gallery shows as “Collateral Damage,” “Uncivil Wars,” and “Girlhood.” At the last minute, artist Judith Bernstein, whose provocative solo exhibitions include “Truth and Chaos,” “We Don’t Owe You a Tomorrow,” and “Money Shot,” was unable to make the gathering. But now everyone is invited to be in the presence of all three remarkable women — and longtime friends — when they convene at the Jewish Museum on March 26 for a “Feminist Art Roundtable” moderated by Rachel Corbett, author of You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin and The Monsters We Make.
Semmel’s “In the Flesh” comprises sixteen lush, tender, and potent depictions of naked contorted figures and bodies in motion, dating from 1971 to 2023. “Their reflections are hidden, as is my face in most of my paintings,” Semmel has noted of her subjects. “For women who are always a sight to be seen, not being seen can be an act of defiance.” The show also features “Eye on the Collection,” consisting of forty-two museum works selected by Semmel, among them Bernstein’s 1966 Invest Your Sons (War Is Good Business) and Kozloff’s 2004 American History: 21st Century Crusades.
Don’t miss this rock-star lineup of extraordinary artists who have helped define and expand the concept of feminist art for six decades, demanding to be seen and heard.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]