Joan Snyder has been called an autobiographical, even confessional artist, who draws from her experiences and surroundings to create her paintings. While her subjects vary widely, Snyder has developed a signature style in her work over the past 40 years, characterized by gestural, patchy brushwork and vivid color combinations. She has also mixed unconventional materials into her paint, including silk, burlap, seeds, twigs, dirt, and glitter. In spite of studying Minimalism with Robert Morris, Snyder found herself tending towards expressionism, saying: “I wanted my paintings to have more content, not less. I wanted to be a maximalist, not a minimalist.” She was more inspired by the Russian and German Expressionists; in fact, Aleksej von Jawlensky’s portraits were instrumental in convincing Snyder to pursue her painting career.

Snyder was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1974 and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1983. In 2007, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

Snyder's work may be found in collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Jewish Museum, The Guggenheim, The High Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection, among others.

Courtesy of Diane Villani Editions