Composed of an assortment of unconventional materials, Heart On is a voluptuous, highly tactile painting that Snyder made at the height of her participation in the feminist movement. Sections of the canvas were cut open and, in some cases, sewn back together to resemble wounds and sutures. Created during a period of "anger and pain," the work also chronicles the artist’s "sexual awakening," as she grappled with her growing desire for women—a subject suggested by the work’s playful, provocative title. Heart On exemplifies the personal and sexual politics of Snyder’s practice while also reflecting her commitment to an aesthetic of partiality and incompletion that exposes the painting’s anatomy to view.
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Inscription: Dated and inscribed (verso): Heart on 1975
[Carl Solway Gallery, New York, by 1976–at least 1978]; private collection, Cincinnati; Mr. and Mrs. Donald Rugoff, New York (by 1980–81; their gift to MMA)
New York. Carl Solway Gallery. "Joan Snyder: New York 1974–75," February 6–March 13, 1976, no catalogue.
Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, College at Purchase. "Joan Snyder: Seven Years of Work," January 17–March 4, 1978, unnumbered cat. (fig. 23; lent by Carl Solway Gallery, N.Y.C.).
Southampton, N. Y. Parrish Art Museum. "Joan Snyder, Painter: 1969 to Now," July 10–August 21, 1994, not in catalogue.
Jewish Museum, New York. "Joan Snyder," August 12–October 23, 2005, unnumbered cat. (p. 66).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible," March 18–September 4, 2016, unnumbered cat. (pl. 160).
New York. Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. "Art After Stonewall, 1969–1989," April 21–July 21, 2019, unnumbered cat. (p. 114).
Sally Webster. "Joan Snyder, Fury and Fugue: Politics of the Inside." Feminist Art Journal 5 (Summer 1976), pp. 7–8, ill., calls it "Heart–On"; describes this painting as a "summary of both her [the artist's] technical and feminist involvements".
Sherman Drexler. "Joan Snyder, Carl Solway Gallery." Artforum (May 1976), p. 72.
Ellen Lubell. "Joan Snyder, Carl Solway." Arts Magazine 50 (April 1976), p. 25.
Hayden Herrera inJoan Snyder: Seven Years of Work. Exh. cat., Neuberger Museum, State University of New York. Purchase, 1978, p. 26, fig. 23.
Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein. American Women Artists from Early Indian Times to the Present. Boston, 1982, p. 416, fig. 9-18.
Karin Lipson. "Snyder's Progress: Strokes to Symbols." Newsday (August 5, 1994), p. B19, calls it "Heart-On".
Carl Belz. "Snyder, Joan." Dictionary of Women Artists. Ed. Delia Gaze. Chicago, 1997, vol. 2, p. 1293, ill.
Harmony Hammond. Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History. New York, 2000, p. 37, ill. p. 36.
Hayden Herrera. Joan Snyder. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum, New York. New York, 2005, p. 43.
Jenni Sorkin in Hayden Herrera. Joan Snyder. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum, New York. New York, 2005, pp. 66–67, 72, ill. (color).
"Goings On About Town: Art | Jewish Museum." New Yorker (September 5, 2005), p. 26.
Whitney Chadwick. Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. (1st ed., 1990). London, 2007, p. 346, fig. 211 (color).
Phong Bui and Joan Snyder. "Joan Snyder with Phong Bui." Brooklyn Rail (September 2008).
Judith Olch Richards. Oral history interview with Joan Snyder. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. February 25–26, 2010, the artist describes this work as one that deals with female sensibility.
Cassandra Langer. "Artist's Profile: Joan Snyder, Painting a Feminist Expressionism." Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide 18 (November–December 2011), p. 28.
Kelly Baum inUnfinished: Thoughts Left Visible. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. New York, 2016, pp. 209, 320, colorpl. 160.
Alex Vadukul. "'Who Has Time For a Blank Canvas?': What We Learned When We Talked to Art Lovers." New York Times (August 26, 2016), p. C19, ill. (installation view, Exh. New York 2016).
Sarah Boxer. "An Era for Women Artists?" Atlantic (December 2016).
Joan Snyder. "Florine Stettheimer's 'Cathedrals' Paintings." The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art. Ed. Chris Noey. New York, 2017, ill. p. 214 (color).
Molly Snyder-Fink. "My Mother's Altar: Joan Snyder Paints to Face Herself." Woman's Art Journal 39 (Fall / Winter 2018), pp. 9–10, pl. 9.
Mary Schneider Enriquez inRosebuds & Rivers: Joan Snyder. Exh. cat., Blain/Southern. London, 2019, pp. 55–56, 63, ill. (color).
Anna Conlan and Jonathan Weinberg inArt After Stonewall, 1969–1989. Ed. Jonathan Weinberg, with Tyler Cann, Anastasia Kinigopoulo, and Drew Sawyer. Exh. cat., Grey Art Gallery, New York University. Columbus, Ohio, 2019, p. 23, ill. p. 114 (color).
Ariella Budick. "Art After Stonewall — Exhilarating New York Exhibition Charts the Fight for Gay Rights." ft.com. May 9, 2019.
Joan Snyder (American, born Highland Park, New Jersey, 1940)
1978–81
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