Nude Ascending

Joseph Drapell – Reinventing The Figure

Pictured (from left to right): Susannah and the Elder, 2011, and Expulsion From Paradise, 2013.

INSTEAD of slowing down, the 83 year-old artist takes the greatest risks of his career while celebrating new horizons of the contemporary woman—ascending! This exhibition covers Drapell’s work of the last fifteen years, the period from 2008 to 2023.

Art is worthless…unless it be a projection of some ethics. All else is decoration.
– Jean Cocteau

[Duchamp’s works] thumbed “their nose” at the great art of the past, suggesting an easier way, eagerly taken by the multitude of artists and the art public.
– Matthew Kyba

All art is political; without it, it is a decoration.
– Robert Musil

In the 39 works exhibited on both floors, we can trace Drapell’s artistic conversation with Duchamp, Picasso, all the way to Rothko and Olitski. The critic Matthew Kyba wrote ground-breaking essays about this period of Drapell’s work in the book Nude Ascending which will be launched during the opening. Both the book and the catalog of the exhibition are available. (Anna Maclachlan)

Opening Reception and Launch: Saturday April 29, 2023, 2-5pm
Exhibition runs during the 2023 season by appointment only
(Please text or leave a message at 416-603-4111)

The Museum of New does not have regular hours. It was founded by artist Joseph Drapell and poet Anna Maclachlan in 1998 to promote the art of the New New Painters.

Museum of New
123 Bellwoods Avenue (rear)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M6J 2P6
T: 416-603-4111 (please leave text or message)
www.museumofnew.com
(Not accessible to wheelchairs.)