First published: 15/08/2024
As the curtain fell earlier this year on Joan Semmel's poignant exhibition, An Other View, at Xavier Hufkens in Belgium, the impact of her work continues to resonate, challenging long-held perceptions of beauty, age, and the female body. Spanning nearly five decades of artistic exploration, this exhibition provided a rare opportunity to witness the evolution of Semmel's practice, as she dismantled the societal obsession with youth and reimagined the female nude through a distinctly feminist lens.
Joan Semmel, an American artist renowned for her candid depictions of the female body, has long used her art as a platform to interrogate and critique the male gaze. Her work is characterised by an unflinching examination of the ageing process, and this exhibition was no exception. Semmel's approach is both deeply personal and universally resonant, as she uses her own body as a reference point to explore broader themes of identity, self-perception, and the relentless passage of time.
An Other View featured eight oil paintings and two works on paper, created between 1971 and 2018, each a testament to Semmel's enduring commitment to portraying the female form with authenticity and nuance. Through her muted colour palette and abstract expressionist influences, Semmel strips away the societal veneers that often obscure the realities of the ageing body. Her work is not about idealisation, but rather about representation - depicting the body as it is, with all its imperfections, marks, and changes.
In works like Weathered (2018), Semmel offers a perspective that is rarely seen in the art world: the female body viewed from the standpoint of the woman herself. This painting, like many others in the exhibition, eschews the male gaze entirely. The viewer is invited to see the body through the artist's eyes, with a focus on experience, emotion, and the intimate relationship one has with their own physical form. The result is a powerful confrontation with the viewer's own biases and assumptions about beauty and ageing.
Semmel’s work also plays with the concept of visibility and presence. In Disappearing (2006), the body is not depicted directly but is instead represented through a photograph - an opaque, almost ghostly image that suggests both the persistence and the fading of physical form over time. This piece, like others in the exhibition, challenges the viewer to consider what is truly being observed: the body itself, or the societal expectations and narratives imposed upon it.
One of the most striking aspects of the exhibition was Semmel's use of props, such as mirrors and cameras, to further subvert the male gaze. In Baroque (2002), for instance, the viewer is forced into the frame, compelled to confront their own reflection and, by extension, their own role in perpetuating the objectification of the female form. This self-awareness is central to Semmel's work; it is not merely about depicting the body, but about engaging the viewer in a dialogue about how we see and are seen.
Semmel’s intent to reimagine the nude without objectifying the subject is clear throughout the exhibition. By using her own body as the subject, she disrupts the traditional power dynamics of artist and muse, which have historically positioned the male artist as the observer and the female body as the object. As Semmel herself notes, “Reimagining the nude without objectifying the person, using my own body, made it clear that the artist was female and undercut the stereotypes of the male artist and the female muse.” This deliberate subversion of tradition is a powerful statement against the pervasive cult of youth and the ways in which women's bodies have been commodified and controlled.
The exhibition at Xavier Hufkens served as both a retrospective and a reflection on the enduring relevance of Semmel's work. In a cultural landscape that continues to idolise youth and marginalise ageing, Semmel’s art provides a necessary counter-narrative. Her paintings do not shy away from the realities of the ageing body; instead, they embrace them, offering a vision of beauty that is complex, lived-in, and deeply human.
As the exhibition concludes, the questions it raises about age, beauty, and self-perception remain vitally important. Semmel's work encourages us to reconsider our own views on the body - both our own and others' - and to recognise the dignity and power that comes with embracing the full spectrum of human experience, including the inevitability of ageing. Through An Other View, Joan Semmel has once again proven that art can be a powerful tool for challenging societal norms and expanding our understanding of beauty in all its forms.
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