The article reviews Joan Semmel: In the Flesh, a retrospective exhibition at The Jewish Museum in New York (December 2025 – May 2026). The author describes an initial discomfort with Semmel's graphic nude paintings of aging female bodies, but after researching the artist's significance in feminist art, comes to appreciate her unapologetic honesty. The show is arranged chronologically, tracing Semmel's evolution from works like Erotic Yellow (1973) to later paintings that grow in confidence and freedom, all while maintaining a focus on female embodiment and pleasure from a female perspective.
This exhibition matters because Semmel's work directly challenges the historical taboo of depicting aging female bodies in art, rejecting the polished, male-gaze-driven ideals that have dominated art history. By emphasizing features like wrinkles, pubic hair, and sagging skin, Semmel transforms what is often hidden into something visible and human, preserving bodily realities that art history has erased. The show also highlights how radical Semmel's unapologetic representation of female sexuality was in the 1970s, when no gallery or museum would display her work, making this retrospective a significant moment for feminist art and visibility.