Joanna Frueh (1948–2020) was an American artist, writer, and feminist scholar.
Early life
Frueh was born on January 18, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois to Erne Rene Frueh and Florence (Pass) Frueh. Both parents were well educated; her father in visual arts and her mother in classical piano. Together they authored a book about stained glass in Chicago, which was published by Loyola University Press in 1983. Their two successive homes in Highland Park were designed by architects Crombie Taylor and
Robert Bruce Tague
Robert Bruce Tague (1910/1911–1984) was an American modernist architect and abstract artist who lived in Chicago, Illinois.
Education and military service
Tague studied architecture at the Armour Institute of Technology, receiving a Bache ...
.
Education
Frueh received her Bachelor of Art from
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...
in 1970; and her Master of Arts from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in 1971; and her PhD, from the University of Chicago in 1981.
Career
Frueh was the director of Artemisia Gallery, in Chicago, one of the earliest women's art galleries in the United States during 1974–1976.
Her book ''Monster Beauty: Building the Body of Love'', dealing with the aesthetics of beauty, pleasure and the erotic in everyday life was published by the
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
. Her writing combined theory with autobiography, photography, and poetry.
Frueh authored and edited several books, notably ''Erotic Faculties'' (
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
Press, 1996) and ''Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective'' (1989); and was coeditor of ''Picturing the Modern Amazon'' (2000), ''Feminist Art Criticism: Art, Identity, Action'' (1994), and ''Feminist Art Criticism: An Anthology'' (1991).
She wrote articles and reviews for ''
Art in America
''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...
'', ''Art Journal'', ''
AfterImage
AfterImage is a Filipino rock band formed in 1986, best known for their songs "Habang May Buhay", "Next in Line", and "Mangarap Ka". They disbanded in 1997 and became active again in 2008 after they reunited and released their fourth studio album ...
'', ''
High Performance Magazine
''High Performance'' was a quarterly arts magazine based out of Los Angeles founded in 1978 and published until 1997. Its editorial mission was to provide support and a critical context for new, innovative and unrecognized work in the arts.
''Hi ...
'', and ''
New Art Examiner
The ''New Art Examiner'' was an international magazine of critical art thinking founded in Chicago, Illinois, in October 1973 by Derek Guthrie and Jane Addams Allen. Publication ceased in 2002. As of 2023 there are two publications using the na ...
'', among others.
Freuh was also a photographer and performance artist; many of her photographs are collaborative self-portraits. Her work was exhibited internationally.
Teaching
She was
Professor Emerita
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of Art History at the
University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...
, where she served from 1990 to 2006.
Prior to that she was assistant professor of art history at
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
, Oberlin, Ohio, (1983–1985) and the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
, Tucson (1981–1983).
Awards
Frueh was awarded a
Women's Caucus for Art Honor Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts in 2008.
Published works
Books
* ''BRUMAS: A Rock Star's Passage to a Life Re-Vamped.'' Includes series of black-and-white self-portrait photos shot by Glascock and Glascock. Oberlin, Ohio and Ukiah, California: Freshcut Press, 1982.''
''
* ''Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective''. With Hannah Wilke and Thomas H. Kochheiser. St. Louis, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1989.
* ''Feminist Art Criticism: An Anthology''. Co-edited with Arlene Raven and Cassandra L. Langer. New York, New York: Icon Editions, 1991. Second edition. New York, New York: Routledge, 2019.
* ''New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity, Action''. Co-edited with Arlene Raven and Cassandra L. Langer. New York, New York: Icon Editions, 1993.
* ''Erotic Faculties''. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1996.
* ''Picturing the Modern Amazon''. With the New Museum of Contemporary Art. New York, New York: Rizzoli, 1999.
* ''Monster/Beauty: Building the Body of Love''. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2001.
* '' The Glamour of Being Real. ''Tucson: ErneRené Press, 2013.
* ''Joanna Frueh: A Retrospective''. With Tanya Augsburg and Sheppard Fine Art Gallery. Reno, Nevada: Nevada Museum of Art, 2005.
* ''Swooning Beauty: A Memoir of Pleasure''. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 2006.
* ''Clairvoyance (For Those In The Desert): Performance Pieces, 1979–2004''. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2008.
* ''Unapologetic Beauty''. With Frances Murray. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2019.
Death
Frueh died in Tucson, Arizona, on February 20, 2020, due to complications from breast cancer.
Her archives are located at Stanford University Library Special Collections.
See also
*
Feminist art criticism
Feminist art criticism emerged in the 1970s from the wider feminist movement as the critical examination of both visual representations of women in art and art produced by women. It continues to be a major field of art criticism.
Emergence
Lin ...
*
Feminist art
Feminist art is a category of art associated with the late 1960s and 1970s feminist movement. Feminist art highlights the societal and political differences women experience within their lives. The hopeful gain from this form of art is to bri ...
*
Performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frueh, Joanna
Feminist artists
American feminist writers
American non-fiction writers
American performance artists
1948 births
2020 deaths