| Maker(s): | Snyder, Joan
| | Culture: | American (1940 - )
| | Title: | My Temple, My Totems
| | Date Made: | 1983-1984
| | Type: | Painting
| | Materials: | oil, cloth, wood and other mixed media on canvas
| | Place Made: | United States
| | Measurements: | stretcher: 60 1/8 x 120 1/8 in.; 152.7175 x 305.1175 cm
| | Narrative Inscription: | signed and dated down right edge in pencil: Joan Snyder '84
| | Accession Number: | SC 1994.11.87
| | Credit Line: | Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Small, Jr. (Susan Spencer, class of 1948)
| | Museum Collection: | Smith College Museum of Art
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Description:
allegory
Label Text:
This raw, expressionist painting coincides with a difficult period in the artist's life after her divorce and the loss of her home. The bright colors of the mask-like head and house set against the dark background scream with emotional intensity. In the artist's own words, "yellow is the color of anxiety" and serves here to signal her distress. The bold strokes, crude outlines and dripping paint reinforce the sense of emotional turmoil. Potent symbols ("totems") representing loss are erected in the background of the painting: bare branching trees, a crucifix-like form, a piece of dead wood. Bits of gauze embedded in the paint suggest bandages. The painting is both an act of catharsis and a visual portrait of one woman's trauma.
Snyder first attained recognition for her abstract paintings. In the 1970s she became involved with feminism and widened her scope to include the use of autobiographical subject matter in her art.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1994.11.87 |
