Joan Semmel Kicks Ass at 93
An intimate profile of the body painter, Hungary's art world post-Orbán, and Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury's life amid war.
“I never started out to be an inspiration. I started out to just do what I’ve tried to do,” Joan Semmel said during a recent visit to her Manhattan studio. Wiser words have never been spoken, and at 93, with hundreds of portraits painted and demand for her works on the rise, Semmel has quite a bit of wisdom to share. Aaron Short profiles the artist with exquisite photos by Hyperallergic's Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian.
After the Tisza opposition party defeated Viktor Orbán in a landslide election, ending 16 years of authoritarian rule over life and culture in Hungary, artists and art workers are finally allowing themselves to hope. The New York-based Hungarian curator Veronika Molnár traces the extended period of silence and censorship in her country and imagines a path forward in a must-read opinion piece today.
Also today, writer Hadley Suter talks to Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury across a series of exchanges — fragmented by the US and Israel's bombardment in and near her current residence of Beirut — about her multisensory practice and life during war. And don't miss this week's special edition of A View From the Easel featuring British painter Celia Paul. “The main thing I love about my studio is that it is mine. No one can enter without permission,” she writes.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
Joan Semmel Is Doing Her Best Work at 93
“You say, ‘Fuck you. I’m good and you’re wrong,’” she told Hyperallergic. “This is who I am, this is what I do, and this is what I care about.” | Aaron Short
Maria Britton: Second Sleep
Discarded bedsheets shape portals of reflection, obscuring the past or inviting to imagine what lies beyond in this exhibition at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston.
News
- In a bold crossover, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will present the slender works of 20th-century Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti inside its Ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur this summer.
- As a Harry Bertoia sculpture long thought lost resurfaces in Detroit, the artist's work welcomes a period of rediscovery.
Opinion
Dismantling Orbán's 16-Year Grip on Hungary's Art World
As a Hungarian curator living in the United States, I cannot help but see my country as both a cautionary tale and a source of hope for artistic freedom. | Veronika Molnar
Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds
The first US museum exhibition to focus on the artist’s late work, produced in response to the fascism of the 1930s. On view at the Jewish Museum through July 26, 2026.
Art and War
Tania El Khoury’s Soothing “Revenge Art”
The Lebanese artist and Bard College professor spoke with Hyperallergic about her recent projects and precarious life under bombardment in Beirut. | Hadley Suter
Community
A View From the Easel With Celia Paul
“The main thing I love about my studio is that it is mine. No one can enter without permission.”
Member Comment
Claudia Gibson-Hunter on Paddy Johnson's “Art Problems: Do I Need to Go to Art Fairs?"
From the Archive
Celia Paul Paints Her Place in the World
A new monograph brings the artist’s life into focus as she returns to the same subjects again and again: the women in her family, the British Museum, and the sea. | Eliza Goodpasture
