Lisa Yuskavage

Lisa Yuskavage’s works are characterized by an ongoing engagement with the history of painting. Her oeuvre bears witness to a re-emergence of the figurative in contemporary painting and takes its point of departure in part in the immediacy and tawdriness of contemporary life spurred by the mass media and the psycho-social realm of the individual. Over the past two decades, she has developed her own genre of the female nude: lavish, erotic, cartoonish, vulgar, angelic young women cast within fantastical landscapes or dramatically lit interiors. They appear to occupy their own realm while narcissistically contemplating themselves and their bodies. Rich, atmospheric skies frequently augment the psychologically charged mood, further adding to the impression of theatricality and creative possibility.

All Lisa Yuskavage books

Christopher Bedford

Christopher Bedford is the Henry and Lois Foster Director of the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham.

Suzanne Hudson

Suzanne Hudson is professor of art history and fine arts at the University of Southern California.

Catherine Lord

Catherine Lord is professor emerita of art, University of California, Irvine.

Siddhartha Mukherjee

Siddhartha Mukherjee is assistant professor of medicine, Columbia University, and staff cancer physician, Columbia University Medical Center, New York. His 2010 book The Emperor of All Maladies received the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Katy Siegel

Katy Siegel is professor of art history, Hunter College, and chief curator, Hunter College Galleries, New York.