Art
Joan Snyder
Joan Snyder is a painter who reflects her time while remaining irreducibly herself. Now 65, she responded in a forceful way not only to the various artistic styles of the postwar period, from Abstract Expressionism to minimalism, but also to the era’s political passions—notably feminism and the dream of social justice. Somehow, though, she never succumbed to pastiche, politics, or fashion. Her show at the Jewish Museum this year was instead the layered story of a rich private life. Snyder’s art, when confessional, is never obvious. The paintings are visceral but subtle. They’re made of glimpses. They open a lush painterly window in which many New Yorkers—men as well as women—can see themselves.