Joan Snyder

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

TODAY on the GWA Podcast is the esteemed painter Joan Snyder. Hailed for her large-scale gestural canvases that pulsate with colour, line and text, and are often layered with, buried in, or imploded with images of flowers, faces, or bodies, Snyder's all-encompassing works are nothing but electric. Sometimes large scale, with brushstrokes that populate the canvas like gemstones or musical scores with a whole range of keys: look at Snyder's work for a while, and it's like whole worlds emerge. Simultaneously soft but violent, beautiful yet aggressive, her works can evoke every season of emotion, just as she once wrote in her journal in 1972: "The strokes in my painting speak of my life and experiences. They are sometimes soft, they sometimes laugh, and are often violent. They bleed and cry. I speak of love and anguish, of fear, and mostly of hope." Born in 1940, Snyder came to art not straight away, but by chance during her studies at Rutgers University, when she was studying sociology in preparation for a career in social work. But it was under the mentorship of Billy Prichard that she pivoted to art, showing just how important teachers can be. Today we meet Joan in her Brooklyn studio, where she remains one of the legendary artists of her time. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and in museum collections all over the world, Snyder, at 85 – nearly 86 – is painting more than ever and this summer, will take to Paris for her upcoming show, Earthsongs at Thaddaeus Ropac Paris, and I cannot wait to find out more. Joan Snyder: Earthsongs opens 6 June at Thaddeus Ropac Paris https://ropac.net/exhibitions/796-joan-snyder-earthsongs/ THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: www.famm.com/en/ www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Tory Pope Co-produced with Molly LaFosse Music by Ben Wetherfield

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to the Great Woman Artist podcast for this very special bonus episode with the legendary painter Joan Snyder.
0:08.9	Just before we get to this episode, I am very pleased to say that this series is supported by the Levit Collection,
0:14.8	a vast and varied art collection, which in the last eight years has become entirely focused on works by women artists.
0:22.4	You can find this collection on view at the Museum Femn in Mujan in France,
0:27.2	the first museum in the world outside of the USA
0:29.8	to have a permanent collection dedicated to major female artists
0:33.8	and which is spearheaded by Christian Levitt.
0:37.1	Located in the heart of the historic village
0:39.2	of Rujin-N-Ecan in the south of France, FAMM features an incredible collection of nearly a hundred
0:45.1	works that has just been rehung for summer 26. From Leonora Carrington to Anna Mendeeta,
0:51.6	Alice Neal, Lee Miller, Joan Snyder, Frida Carlo, Elaine de Kooning, and so many more.
0:57.0	This impressive collection of paintings, sculptures and photographs highlights the brilliance of women who have played pivotal roles in shaping some of the major artistic movements.
1:07.0	It's 30 minutes away from Mies Airport and has open every single day.
1:17.9	For further information and bookings, please visit www.fammed.com.
1:19.6	I hope you enjoy this episode.
1:29.3	Hello everyone and welcome to The Great Women Artist's podcast with me, Katie Hel. Some of you might know me from The Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October 2015, which celebrates female artists on a daily basis, ranging from young graduates to old masters.
1:41.3	Well, in a similar fashion to the Instagram, this podcast is all about celebrating
1:46.3	female artists from a variety of backgrounds and histories. And I am so excited to be interviewing
1:52.1	artists on their career or artists, writers, curators or general art lovers on the women artist
1:57.7	who means most of them. What I want this podcast to do is celebrate female artists in all different capacities
2:04.1	so you, the listener, can gain a look into the greatest female artists working now or from art history.
2:13.2	I am so excited to say that my guest on the Great Women Artas podcast is the esteemed painter, Joan Snyder.
	...

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