Lisa Yuskavage – Freya Emery

Abstract Expressionism & Pop Art, Contemporary, Post Modernism, & Women in Art

Lisa Yuskavage, a 58-year-old American Artist, located in New York City, and is known for surprising all with her bold, daring, and erotic artwork. Lisa was born on May 16, 1962, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later she would attend Tyler School of Art at Temple University, receiving her BFA in 1984. After receiving her Bachelor, Lisa would receive her MFA from the Yale University School of Art in 1986. Since then, she has produced hundreds of pieces, ranging from detailed paintings to a handful of sculptures.

A common theme that one can see in every piece of Lisa’s is a figure or many that are nude or at least sensuous and suggestive. Her artwork is buttery and soft with a mix of bright colors that blend well into her figures and landscapes. In an interview, Lisa once said that she was told “Don’t” her whole life, which inspired her to paint the figures she does, to break away from the rules, and to finally see something in galleries, like her work, that has never been seen before. Most are shocked by Lisa’s artwork as it is borderline pornographic and extremely risky and daring. Her work is similar to Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde.

Some of her many paintings include Faucet(1995), NorthView(2000), Travellers(2008), Nel’zah’s(2012), and Hippies(2013).