At the core of Chantal Joffe's painting practice is an investigation into the human experience, tracing the transitional moments, such as child-rearing and ageing, and the consequential hopes and anxieties that constitute life. Usually depicting women and children, as well as herself, Joffe delves into the mechanics of representing beauty and the female form in both public and private spaces.
Read MoreJoffe graduated with an MA from London's Royal College of Art in 1994 and began to garner attention for small-scale paintings based on pornography. In an article for the Guardian in 2009, the artist reflected on her interest in painting nudes as offering the featured women new life, writing that 'I saw my paintings as resurrecting them.' Joffe's use of broad slabs of paint, which dry to an almost sculptural quality, and the expressiveness of her work continued into her later oeuvre.
Following the birth of her daughter Esme in 2004, motherhood has been a primary subject for Joffe. In Self-Portrait Pregnant II (2004), Joffe poses in mismatched underwear with confidence and ease, while in Self Portrait with Esme (2008) she contrasts her body with that of young and growing Esme. Her solo exhibition For Esme—With Love and Squalor at Arnolfini, Bristol, in 2020 brought together a group of works that provided intimate and uncontrived depictions of childhood and maternity.
For Esme also included 'Pictures of What I Did Not See' (2019): a series of oil stick paintings Joffe made while recovering from a collapse of which she had no memory. Esme looked after Joffe during her recuperation—a reversal of the standard parent-child relationship that perhaps inspired the artist to portray her daughter as a towering figure in Esme at Sixteen (2020). Esme's black blouse against the painting's white background gives her body a solidity as a robust and mature teenager.
Adolescence is, however, also contradictory and fraught with self-consciousness. Joffe explored these themes in Teenagers at Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, in 2020. Her first solo exhibition with the gallery as well as her first solo presentation in Seoul, Teenagers saw the artist present new works that unveil the emotional peaks and valleys of growing up, featuring Esme and her friends.
Expanding her career-long engagement with self-portraiture as a mode through which she documents her thoughts, Joffe painted herself every day of 2018. In various scales, the self-portraits capture different emotions and subtleties of daily life. Night Self-Portrait I, March depicts the artist against a black background, while Self-Portrait II, August focuses on her face, a bright green hue to her skin. Joffe exhibited a selection of the self-portraits in her 2019 solo exhibition at Victoria Miro Mayfair, London.
Lucie and Daryll: Chantal Joffe Looking at Lucian Freud, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2020); Teenagers, Lehmann Maupin, Seoul (2020); Personal Feeling Is the Main Thing, The Lowry, Salford (2018); Chantal Joffe, Cheim & Read, New York (2017); Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Chantal Joffe, curated by Jens Hoffmann, The Jewish Museum, New York (2015).
Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media, The Foundling Museum, London (2020); In Her Hands, Skarstedt, New York (2020); Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2019); Art Capital: Art for the Elizabeth Line, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); Friendship Portraits: Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough, National Portrait Gallery, London (2015).
Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2020
