Art 1301 （3 assignments need separate）

John Doe ARTS 1301-83013 1/29/2018

Richland College

Final Paper: Joan Semmel’s Purple Diagonal

Spring 2018 – Section 83013

Mr. Jason Hose, MA Art Education

Brief Artist Biography

Joan Semmel is an American artist born in New York City in 1932. Since high school, she has worked in an abstract style that is reflective of both her formal instruction from prestigious art-centric schools in the metropolitan area and her contributions to the feminist cause. After completing her graduate degree in 1972 and becoming involved with both the women’s movement and the journal Heresies, Semmel shied away from her formal abstractionist training in favor of a more figurative form. Using photographs of her body, she began to create works that featured foreshortened images of nude figures gazing upon themselves in a first person perspective. Her combination of abstract perspective and representational form contrasted the long history of the nude portrait as something to be witnessed by others in an effort to probe the psyches of 20th-and 21st century women; who now contemplated themselves and their relationship with the world around them with a newly expanded field of vision. As one of the most prominent artists to cast the human body from a woman’s perspective, she continues to use abstraction to depict erotic forms of feminism to this day.

Introduction to Purple Diagonal

I chose Purple Diagonal because of how visually striking it was. The composition of the piece draws the viewer’s intrigue by challenging their efforts to identify its subject. With a mass of flesh set upon a dichromatic background, the work’s abstract dimensions mimic the appearance of a piece by M.C. Escher at first glance. Much of my interest in this painting comes from how familiar this work seemed to be despite clearly being a nonrepresentational piece. Being unfamiliar with artwork in general, I had yet to see any abstract works take advantage of such a technique at a level low enough to where I could readily identify its subject.

Section I Description

Purple Diagonal is a non-representational work completed in 1980 as part of the Echoing Images series by early feminist and abstract artist Joan Semmel. The painting itself resides on a 79.5 inch by 105.75 inch canvas and is composed of oil-based paints on canvas. Taking advantage of abstraction and figurative nudity, the work depicts a post-coital moment of introspection told from a woman’s point of view using a representational figure layered upon an abstracted, up-scaled duplicate. The work makes use of a variety of lines, including blurry textured lines and bold swirls to create a sense of contrast along the depth of the scene’s visual field. Recognizable forms, constructed out of soft organic shapes, are dismantled into hard edges and chaotic spirals towards the base of the canvas in an effort to preserve the distinction between background and foreground while creating a sense of balance between definition and ambiguity that permeates the work as a whole. In creating this work, the artist sought to contemporize the female form, using figuration as a means of stripping away the comodification of the female form alongside other stereotypes surrounding the feminine identity from youth.

Section II Analysis

Purple Diagonal can be best analyzed as a psychedelic depiction of an intimate post-coital period of reflection captured gesturally via oil on canvas. Taking place in an opaque purple void, two figures are seen reclining on a bed situated near one of the corners of the room. Semmel uses a split complimentary arrangement of orange, purple and blue-green at various tints, tones and shades to capture a sense of enlightenment in the face of a morally ambiguous and compromising circumstance. These two figures maintain a prominent presence in all three planes of field, existing along a diagonal line of action that also leads the viewer’s eyes towards a vanishing point above the horizon.

In the foreground, Semmel thrusts the two figures into the forward picture plane, emulating the first person perspective as held by the smaller of the two. In this plane, one can see a swirl of tinted peaches, saturated oranges, and thin strands of greens comprising what can be thought of as the smaller figure’s nose and cheekbone.

In the mid-ground, the profile of the smaller and larger figures assumes a more defined structure. The confused haze of swirls and vortices of the foreground give way to a series of clearly defined lines and smooth, organic shapes. Supple pale curves construct a feminine form along the leading line, while darker, angular shapes comprise a more masculine figure directly to the right. The masculine and feminine forms are juxtaposed through their orientation relative to each other. Both figures are depicted in the same position: reclining against a surface with the right leg extended, the left leg folded, and the left arm wedged behind the knee holding the folded leg in place. The darker figure appears to cradle the lighter figure between its massive legs, however. The lighter figure’s toes are also seen, and the fullest extent of the feminine figure appears to rest on the plane that separates the background and mid-ground.

In the background, only the right leg of the larger figure can be seen. In contrast to the depictions shown in the middle plane, the larger, more masculine figure assumes many of the same properties of the smaller feminine figure. Soft organic shapes and neon curves form the outline of the leg as it thrusts out into the vanishing point, suggesting that the distinctions seen between these two figures are ultimately trivial when viewed with the emulsifying power of distance.

Section III Interpretation

The title Purple Diagonal fits the work’s overall theme in that it represents the stark change of an observer’s point of view on the subject of nudity. Traditionally portrayed from an impersonal and objectifying point of view, Semmel uses her brush to cast an abstract portrayal of what it means to be a woman from the perspective of one. Ever since her return to New York in 1970, Semmel established herself as a well known feminist through her involvement in a variety of feminist art groups—including the Ad Hoc Committee of Women Artists, Women in the Arts, and the Art Workers Coalition. Many of her most notable works featuring abstract figuration were particularly controversial in how they blurred the line between fine art and pornography. While certainly sensual, the work’s eroticism goes beyond the pale in that it reflects the idea that the repression of female identity and agency was deeply rooted in the sexual domain. Semmel’s persistent use of highly saturated colors and gestural modeling throughout the Echoing Images series reflects a desire to evade the shame of smuttiness while bringing to light the changing definition of womanhood at the time of the painting’s conception. In Purple Diagonal’s case the use of placement, hue, value, and proportion contributes to the viewer’s understanding of the themes concerned. The fact that the forms are scaled tessellations of each other quite literally makes the painting a show of contrasts: a show of light and dark, a show of rough and smooth, a show of man and woman, and a showing of the split between split between internal and the external expectations that occurred under second-wave feminism.

Section IV Judgment

Purple Diagonal is an intriguing work. Painted in a time where female figurative artists went unnoticed due to the unpopularity of their subject matter and their sexually intimidating presence in a male-dominated field, Joan Semmel manages to use vivid coloration, figurative modeling, and abstract figuration and to expand on the experiences of the modern woman. Through her work she uses perspective to cast a sexual encounter through the eyes of the female actor, using coloration and shape to allude to the sense of enlightenment one feels amidst an expanding sphere of influence. I was intrigued by how the work’s abstract nature was able to command my attention from afar. While the work itself does little to provide context regarding its circumstances, navigating the fleshy mass in search of something familiar nevertheless proved to be stimulating, to say the least.

Works Cited:

Swartz, Anne K. "Semmel, Joan." Grove Art Online. 2011-02-23. Oxford University Press. Date of access 11 Feb. 2018, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.dcccd.idm.oclc.org/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7002090936

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