Joyce Reopel (1933–2019) was an American painter, draughtswoman and sculptor who worked in pencil, aquatint, silver- and goldpoint, and an array of old master media. A Boris Mirski Gallery veteran, from 1959–1966,[1] she was known for her refined skills and virtuosity. She was also one of very few women[2][3] in the early group of Boston artists that included fellow artist and husband Mel Zabarsky, Hyman Bloom, Barbara Swan, Jack Levine, Marianna Pineda, Harold Tovish and others who helped overcome Boston's conservative distaste for the avant-garde, occasionally female, and often Jewish artists later classified as Boston expressionists. Unique to New England, Boston Expressionism has had lasting national and local influence, and is now in its third generation.
Joyce Reopel
Born
January 21, 1933
Worcester, MA
Died
January 16, 2019
Portsmouth, NH
Education
Worcester Art Museum School; Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Arts, Oxford University
Known for
silver- and goldpoint drawings, paintings and sculpture
American Academy of Arts & Letters: Arts & Letters Award; Ford Foundation Grant; National Institute of Arts & Letters (NIAL) Grant; Radcliffe Scholar; Yale-Norfolk Fellowship; Harvard/Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship
Known for her finely wrought detail and lush sensuality,[4]New York Magazine called Reopel "an artisan as well as an artist," while praising her renderings of the figure because "[t]he artist seems consistently to search out that which lies behind the physical trait. And having discovered it, she presents it in whispers, with unusual understatement and economy."[5] The results range from expressive realism to subtle surrealism and outright grotesquerie.
A student of sculptor Leonard Baskin at the Worcester Art Museum School, then known as the “Mini-Met,”[6] Reopel shared his fascination with the human form, and his interest in fine arts printing, woodcut, sculpture, etching and typography.[7][8] Her earliest work can be seen in a 1953 version of T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men, which she illustrated and helped typeset as an art student.[9] In 1958, she created pen-and-ink cover illustrations for Boston's Audience: A Quarterly Review of Literature and the Arts in an issue featuring several of Anne Sexton's poems and interior illustration by Arthur Polonsky. She also designed many of the catalogues for her 1960s and 1970s aquatint, silver- and goldpoint exhibitions at Boston's Boris Mirski Gallery[1] and, in New York, the Corber Gallery[5][10] and founder Bella Fishco's Forum Gallery.[11][12][13]
As Reopel's work matured, its subtly emotive, even melancholy, rendering of its subjects, were often lyrical in the vein of fellow Boston Expressionist Arthur Polonsky.[14] Her distinctive palette evolved from glints of silver, gold and lead-gray in the early years to subtle tones of grayed blue and green when she turned to oil painting.[4] Her old-master technical skill, meanwhile, reflected an interest in history that was also sometimes reflected in her depictions of historical themes or classical icons.
Education, Awards & Honors
A graduate of the Worcester Art Museum School, Reopel also spent two years studying at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts at Oxford University. Earning recognition and laudits for her work, Reopel was the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at the Bunting Institute (since renamed the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard) and a grant as a Radcliffe Scholar for Independent Study; a fellowship to Yale Norfolk School of Art; a grant then under Princeton's aegis at the National Institute of Arts & Letters (NIAL); a Ford Foundation grant in sculpture and drawing; the American Academy of Arts & Letters Arts & Letters Award; and a research grant from Wheaton College.
Radcliffe College Archives sound recordings collection, 1951-2008, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, MA
Records of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association, Cambridge, MA
Records of the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, 1933-2008, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, MA
Publications/Notable Reproductions
The Hollow Men, WAM Press, Reopel and Sorenson, 1953
Joyce Reopel: Drawings in silverpoint and goldpoint, November 9th through December 4th, 1965
Joyce Reopel: Drawings in silverpoint, goldpoint, and pencil: January 22nd through February 15th, 1969
The Liberal Context, Issues 1–9, 1-17. Edited by Cudhea, David W., with Anne Chiarenza, Gobin Stair, Orloff Miller. Published by College Centers Committee of American Unitarian Association in cooperation with Liberal Religious Youth (LRY) Inc. Art by Joyce Reopel and others, 1961-1966
Personal life
Born in Worcester, MA in 1933, and raised in nearby Auburn, Reopel was the only child of homemaker Ada (née Anderson) and musician Ernest Reopel.[15] A first cousin to scientist Paul Englund on her mother's side, she was also a distant cousin to French Canadian artist Jean-Paul Riopelle on her father's. In 1955, Reopel married painter and fellow Worcester Art Museum School graduate Mel Zabarsky.[15] Her other professional endeavors included time spent teaching at the Swain School College of Design, the University of New Hampshire and elsewhere.[16] In 1976, her life-long interest in politics[17] helped win her a two-year term in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.[16] A respect for history and passion for architecture led to her interest in preservation, the documented history of her own house,[18] and the founding of the Portsmouth Historic District Commission.[15]
Bibliography
Butler, Cornelia H., et al.WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. United Kingdom: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007. ISBN 978-0914357995, 0914357999
Falk, Peter Hastings (ed). Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 years of artists in America. (3 Volumes.) Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0932087577Painting in Boston: 1950-2000. Lafo, Rachel R. University of Massachusetts Press, 2002; ASIN B01F9GI2FE
Nemser, Cindy, et al.Feminist Art Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, 1974. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/10.2307/community.28036286. Accessed 30 Aug. 2021.
Schwartz, Barry. The New Humanism: Art in a Time of Change. Praeger Publishers, 1974; ISBN978-0715368251
Walkey, Frederick P. New England Women. Decordova Museum, 1975; ASIN B015L4Y6MW
Audience: The Quarterly Review of Literature & the Arts, Vol. 5, Issue 3. Audience Press, 1958; ISBN9780960177424
Collected Visions: Women Artists at the Bunting Institute, 1961-1986, Cambridge, Mass.: Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College, 1986; ISBN978-0960177424
Humanism in New England Art. De Cordova Museum Publisher, Lincoln, MA, 1970; ISBN1-55849-364-6
Notes
^ ab"Smithsonian Institution: Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives". A Finding Aid to the Boris Mirski Gallery Records, 1936-2000, bulk 1945-1972, in the Archives of American Art. Jun 15, 2019.
^Collected visions: Women artists at the Bunting Institute, 1961-1986. Cambridge, MA: Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College. 1986. ISBN978-0960177424.
^Walkey, Frederick P. (1975). New England Women. Lincoln, MA: Decordova Museum.
^ abDeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park (2002). Painting in Boston, 1950-2000. Lincoln, MA: Univ of Massachusetts Press. ISBN1-55849-364-6.
^ abGruen, John (Feb 10, 1969). "Art in New York: Trickery without Gimmickry". New York Magazine: 54.
^Waschek, Matthias (May–June 2019). "Inventing and Reinventing the Worcester Art Museum". Art New England. May–June 2019.
^Michelson, R. (June 15, 2019). "Leonard Baskin: Gehenna Press Printwork". Gehenna Press Printwork — Leonard Baskin — R. Michelson Galleries.
^Moore, Scattergood (Jun 15, 2019). "The Art of Printmaking". The Art of Printmaking.
^Bair, Lorne (Jun 12, 2019). "101 Books from the Library of Ben and Bernarda Bryson Shahn and Lorne Bair Rare Books" (PDF). Lorne Bair. p. 17. Retrieved Jun 12, 2019.
^Cober Gallery, New York (1965). "Joyce Reopel: Drawings in Silverpoint and Goldpoint, November 9th Through December 4th, 1965".
^"Forum Gallery". About Forum Gallery. June 15, 2019.
^"Forum Gallery records, 1961-1990 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". Smithsonian: Archives of American Art. Forum Gallery records, 1961-1990. June 15, 2019.
^"Forum Gallery (New York, N.Y.) | Archives Directory for the History of Collecting". The Frick Collection: Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America. June 15, 2019.
^Marquard, Bryan (April 18, 2019). "Arthur Polonsky, Boston Expressionist artist and teacher, dies at 93 - The Boston Globe". The Boston Globe.
^ abc"Joyce Reopel Zabarsky: Obituary, 1933-2019". Seacoast Online. Jan 25, 2019. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
^ ab"Zabarsky candidate for house". The Portsmouth Herald. Aug 4, 1976. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
^Cudhea, David W. (1961–1966). "The Liberal Context". The Liberal Context.
joyce, reopel, 1933, 2019, american, painter, draughtswoman, sculptor, worked, pencil, aquatint, silver, goldpoint, array, master, media, boris, mirski, gallery, veteran, from, 1959, 1966, known, refined, skills, virtuosity, also, very, women, early, group, bo. Joyce Reopel 1933 2019 was an American painter draughtswoman and sculptor who worked in pencil aquatint silver and goldpoint and an array of old master media A Boris Mirski Gallery veteran from 1959 1966 1 she was known for her refined skills and virtuosity She was also one of very few women 2 3 in the early group of Boston artists that included fellow artist and husband Mel Zabarsky Hyman Bloom Barbara Swan Jack Levine Marianna Pineda Harold Tovish and others who helped overcome Boston s conservative distaste for the avant garde occasionally female and often Jewish artists later classified as Boston expressionists Unique to New England Boston Expressionism has had lasting national and local influence and is now in its third generation Joyce ReopelBornJanuary 21 1933Worcester MADiedJanuary 16 2019Portsmouth NHEducationWorcester Art Museum School Ruskin School of Drawing amp Fine Arts Oxford UniversityKnown forsilver and goldpoint drawings paintings and sculptureStyleBoston ExpressionismSpouseMel ZabarskyAwardsAmerican Academy of Arts amp Letters Arts amp Letters Award Ford Foundation Grant National Institute of Arts amp Letters NIAL Grant Radcliffe Scholar Yale Norfolk Fellowship Harvard Radcliffe Bunting Institute FellowshipWebsitehttps www joycereopel com Contents 1 Work 2 Education Awards amp Honors 3 Exhibitions 4 Collections 5 Archives 6 Publications Notable Reproductions 7 Personal life 8 Bibliography 9 NotesWork EditKnown for her finely wrought detail and lush sensuality 4 New York Magazine called Reopel an artisan as well as an artist while praising her renderings of the figure because t he artist seems consistently to search out that which lies behind the physical trait And having discovered it she presents it in whispers with unusual understatement and economy 5 The results range from expressive realism to subtle surrealism and outright grotesquerie A student of sculptor Leonard Baskin at the Worcester Art Museum School then known as the Mini Met 6 Reopel shared his fascination with the human form and his interest in fine arts printing woodcut sculpture etching and typography 7 8 Her earliest work can be seen in a 1953 version of T S Eliot s The Hollow Men which she illustrated and helped typeset as an art student 9 In 1958 she created pen and ink cover illustrations for Boston s Audience A Quarterly Review of Literature and the Arts in an issue featuring several of Anne Sexton s poems and interior illustration by Arthur Polonsky She also designed many of the catalogues for her 1960s and 1970s aquatint silver and goldpoint exhibitions at Boston s Boris Mirski Gallery 1 and in New York the Corber Gallery 5 10 and founder Bella Fishco s Forum Gallery 11 12 13 As Reopel s work matured its subtly emotive even melancholy rendering of its subjects were often lyrical in the vein of fellow Boston Expressionist Arthur Polonsky 14 Her distinctive palette evolved from glints of silver gold and lead gray in the early years to subtle tones of grayed blue and green when she turned to oil painting 4 Her old master technical skill meanwhile reflected an interest in history that was also sometimes reflected in her depictions of historical themes or classical icons Education Awards amp Honors EditA graduate of the Worcester Art Museum School Reopel also spent two years studying at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts at Oxford University Earning recognition and laudits for her work Reopel was the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at the Bunting Institute since renamed the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and a grant as a Radcliffe Scholar for Independent Study a fellowship to Yale Norfolk School of Art a grant then under Princeton s aegis at the National Institute of Arts amp Letters NIAL a Ford Foundation grant in sculpture and drawing the American Academy of Arts amp Letters Arts amp Letters Award and a research grant from Wheaton College Exhibitions EditBoris Mirski Gallery Boston Boston Arts Festival MA Circulo de Bellas Artes Madrid Cober Gallery NYC Currier Museum of Art Manchester NH DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park Lincoln MA Federal Reserve Bank Boston Forum Gallery NYC Galerie Internationale NYC Museum of Art Durham NH National Institute of Arts amp Letters NIAL New Bedford Art Museum MA New York State Council on the Arts NY Rew Dex Gallery Kyoto Salones Berkowitsch Madrid Tragos Gallery NYC Victoria amp Albert Museum LondonCollections EditAddison Gallery of American Art Andover MA Canton Museum of Art Canton OH Currier Museum of Art Manchester NH Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University Cambridge MA Weisman Art Museum Minneapolis MN Museum of Art Durham NH Ohio State University Columbus Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts PAFA Rhode Island School of Design RISD Museum Providence Sloan Art Library University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Worcester Public Library Worcester Biography Files University of Massachusetts Amherst Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery Collection Nashville TNArchives EditReopel Zabarsky Joyce Art amp Artist files Smithsonian American Art Museum National Portrait Gallery Library Washington DC Folder Smithsonian American Art Museum National Portrait Gallery Library Washington DC Historic Preservation Papers MS067 Portsmouth Athenaeum NH Toshihiro Katayama posters Houghton Library MA Radcliffe College Archives sound recordings collection 1951 2008 Schlesinger Library Radcliffe Institute MA Records of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association Cambridge MA Records of the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute 1933 2008 Schlesinger Library Radcliffe Institute MAPublications Notable Reproductions EditThe Hollow Men WAM Press Reopel and Sorenson 1953 Joyce Reopel Drawings in silverpoint and goldpoint November 9th through December 4th 1965 Joyce Reopel Drawings in silverpoint goldpoint and pencil January 22nd through February 15th 1969 The Liberal Context Issues 1 9 1 17 Edited by Cudhea David W with Anne Chiarenza Gobin Stair Orloff Miller Published by College Centers Committee of American Unitarian Association in cooperation with Liberal Religious Youth LRY Inc Art by Joyce Reopel and others 1961 1966Personal life EditBorn in Worcester MA in 1933 and raised in nearby Auburn Reopel was the only child of homemaker Ada nee Anderson and musician Ernest Reopel 15 A first cousin to scientist Paul Englund on her mother s side she was also a distant cousin to French Canadian artist Jean Paul Riopelle on her father s In 1955 Reopel married painter and fellow Worcester Art Museum School graduate Mel Zabarsky 15 Her other professional endeavors included time spent teaching at the Swain School College of Design the University of New Hampshire and elsewhere 16 In 1976 her life long interest in politics 17 helped win her a two year term in the New Hampshire House of Representatives 16 A respect for history and passion for architecture led to her interest in preservation the documented history of her own house 18 and the founding of the Portsmouth Historic District Commission 15 Bibliography EditButler Cornelia H et al WACK Art and the Feminist Revolution United Kingdom Museum of Contemporary Art 2007 ISBN 978 0914357995 0914357999 Falk Peter Hastings ed Who Was Who in American Art 1564 1975 400 years of artists in America 3 Volumes Madison CT Sound View Press 1999 ISBN 978 0932087577Painting in Boston 1950 2000 Lafo Rachel R University of Massachusetts Press 2002 ASIN B01F9GI2FE Nemser Cindy et al Feminist Art Journal vol 3 no 1 1974 JSTOR jstor org stable 10 2307 community 28036286 Accessed 30 Aug 2021 Schwartz Barry The New Humanism Art in a Time of Change Praeger Publishers 1974 ISBN 978 0715368251 Walkey Frederick P New England Women Decordova Museum 1975 ASIN B015L4Y6MW Audience The Quarterly Review of Literature amp the Arts Vol 5 Issue 3 Audience Press 1958 ISBN 9780960177424 Collected Visions Women Artists at the Bunting Institute 1961 1986 Cambridge Mass Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute Radcliffe College 1986 ISBN 978 0960177424 Humanism in New England Art De Cordova Museum Publisher Lincoln MA 1970 ISBN 1 55849 364 6Notes Edit a b Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives A Finding Aid to the Boris Mirski Gallery Records 1936 2000 bulk 1945 1972 in the Archives of American Art Jun 15 2019 Collected visions Women artists at the Bunting Institute 1961 1986 Cambridge MA Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute Radcliffe College 1986 ISBN 978 0960177424 Walkey Frederick P 1975 New England Women Lincoln MA Decordova Museum a b DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park 2002 Painting in Boston 1950 2000 Lincoln MA Univ of Massachusetts Press ISBN 1 55849 364 6 a b Gruen John Feb 10 1969 Art in New York Trickery without Gimmickry New York Magazine 54 Waschek Matthias May June 2019 Inventing and Reinventing the Worcester Art Museum Art New England May June 2019 Michelson R June 15 2019 Leonard Baskin Gehenna Press Printwork Gehenna Press Printwork Leonard Baskin R Michelson Galleries Moore Scattergood Jun 15 2019 The Art of Printmaking The Art of Printmaking Bair Lorne Jun 12 2019 101 Books from the Library of Ben and Bernarda Bryson Shahn and Lorne Bair Rare Books PDF Lorne Bair p 17 Retrieved Jun 12 2019 Cober Gallery New York 1965 Joyce Reopel Drawings in Silverpoint and Goldpoint November 9th Through December 4th 1965 Forum Gallery About Forum Gallery June 15 2019 Forum Gallery records 1961 1990 Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Archives of American Art Forum Gallery records 1961 1990 June 15 2019 Forum Gallery New York N Y Archives Directory for the History of Collecting The Frick Collection Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America June 15 2019 Marquard Bryan April 18 2019 Arthur Polonsky Boston Expressionist artist and teacher dies at 93 The Boston Globe The Boston Globe a b c Joyce Reopel Zabarsky Obituary 1933 2019 Seacoast Online Jan 25 2019 Retrieved June 15 2019 a b Zabarsky candidate for house The Portsmouth Herald Aug 4 1976 Retrieved May 9 2019 Cudhea David W 1961 1966 The Liberal Context The Liberal Context Joyce Reopel Zabarsky Historic Preservation Papers MS067 Joyce Reopel Zabarsky Historic Preservation Papers MS067 Portsmouth Atheneaum June 15 2019 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Joyce Reopel amp oldid 1109585612, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
