Joyce Treiman

the long version

Joyce Treiman, one of the finest American painters of the late twentieth century, was also one of the most individualistic, combining virtuosic draftsmanship and expressive brushwork with a lifelong devotion to painting the human figure in images that are direct, visceral, and sensuous. The qualities that characterize Treiman's mature work are direct, uncompromising representationalism; an old-master attitude toward the handling of paint; a subtle but pervasive undercurrent of both irony and compassion; vibrant color and fluid brushwork; compositional complexity; and a passion for telling stories in paint. Joyce Treiman is the first monograph devoted to this extraordinary artist. Theodore F. Wolff's essay provides a chronological overview of her life and career, while Michael Duncan analyzes her extraordinary late series of self-portraits. Treiman began as a draftsman and never denied drawing its central role in her creative vision. This elegant volume includes a separate album of drawings, reproducing in rich duotone what are, in Wolff's words, "a number of the finest examples of draftsmanship produced by an American during the past half century." The book's glorious centerpiece is a series of full-color reproductions of eighty-seven of Treiman's finest paintings, ranging from luridly colored pastels of Las Vegas night life to an ambitious cycle representing the labors of Hercules.