Lisa Yuskavage

December 2, 2000-February 9, 2001


Lisa Yuskavage, Blonde, Brunette and Redhead, 1995. Oil on linen, 36 x 108 inches. The Collection of Yvonne Force, Inc.

ICA is pleased to present Lisa Yuskavage's first solo museum exhibition, focusing upon recent and past works. A native of Philadelphia and graduate of Tyler School of Art and Yale, Yuskavage creates images that simultaneously embrace and undermine traditional and formalistic painting methodology.

Lauded by Village Voice critic Peter Schjeldahl as "an extravagantly deft painter," Yuskavage has been represented in over 50 group shows, including the 2000 Whitney Biennial and recent exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, P.S. 1/The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Aldrich Museum, Connecticut.


Lisa Yuskavage, Transference Portrait of my Shrink in her Starched Nightgown with my Face and Her Hair, 1995. Oil on linen, 84 x 72 inches. Private collection.
Yuskavage creates paintings that are both unsettling and seductive. While the content of her work is provocative and sometimes disturbing, the formal qualities are enticing. She manipulates paint in a style that synthesizes abstraction and representation, and skillfully quotes from and refers to a wide range of art historical periods in her works.

This comprehensive and scholarly exhibition will include 18 large-scale paintings, a series of hydrocal-cast figurines, and approximately 40 supporting small paintings, monotypes, and works on paper. Several of the paintings will come from private collections in Europe and have never been publicly exhibited in the United States. "It has always been on my wish list to have a show at ICA," Yuskavage says. "My memories of growing up in Juniata Park are an inextricable part of my work, so I'm especially anxious to see how Philadelphians respond to it."

The exhibition catalogue is available through d.a.p. (www.artbook.com). It features an introduction by the show's curator, ICA Director Claudia Gould, and essays by Katy Siegel, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History and Criticism at Hunter College, CUNY, and frequent contributor to Artforum, and Marcia B. Hall, Professor of Art History at Temple University. Yuskavage cites Hall's 1992 book, Color and Meaning: Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting, as having had a significant influence on her work.

ICA is grateful to the following donors for their generous support of this exhibition: Marianne Boesky, Seema Boesky, The Spiegel Family Foundation: Pamela Spiegel Sanders (C'78) and Lise Spiegel Wilks (C'80), Glenn R. Fuhrman (W'87, WG '88), Phyllis and William L. Mack (W'61), Howard Rachofsky (W'66), AG Rosen and Debi Sonzogni, Linda Lee Alter, Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Jennifer and David Stockman and Ann Tenenbaum. Additional support has been provided by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Advisory Board, friends, members of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the University of Pennsylvania. (Information complete as of October 30, 2000.)


Institute of Contemporary Art | University of Pennsylvania
118 S. 36th St. Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289 | T 215.898.7108 | F 215.898.5050

Copyright © 2004-2008, Institute of Contemporary Art. All rights reserved.
Website developed by Zero Defect Design LLC.