Joanne Leonard is an American photographer, photo collage artist, and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work has been included in major art history textbooks and has been shown internationally in galleries and museums.

Early life

Joanne Leonard was born in Los Angeles in 1940 to P. Alfred Leonard, originally of Mannheim, Germany, and Marjorie Rosenfeld Leonard. She has a twin sister, Eleanor (Rubin), who is also an artist, and a younger sister, Barbara (Handelman). She received a B.A. in Social Science from the University of California in 1962. As infants, she and her twin sister were cast as a baby in The Lady Is Willing starring Marlene Dietrich.

Career

Leonard is known for her photographs and photo collages depicting private moments and personal struggles from women's lives once considered either taboo or unimportant. Her work struck a chord with the art world in the later part of the 20th century, and she was one of the few female artists to be featured in the 3rd edition of

H.W. Janson Horst Woldemar Janson (October 4, 1913 – September 30, 1982), was a Russian Empire-born German-American professor of art history best known for his ''History of Art'', which was first published in 1962 and has since sold more than four million c ...

’s ''History of Art''. Her photograph, ''Julia and the Window of Vulnerability'' was chosen to illustrate the opening of the chapter, "The Modern World" in the 1991 edition of

Gardner's Art Through the Ages ''Gardner's Art Through the Ages'' is an American textbook on the history of art, with the 2004 edition by Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya. The 2001 edition was awarded both a McGuffey award for longevity and the "Texty" Award for curren ...

. She was an official photographer for the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 ( ja, 札幌1972), was a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Europe ...

. She taught art and interdisciplinary courses at the University of Michigan’s Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and now holds the title of Diane M. Kirkpatrick and Griselda Pollock Distinguished University Professor Emerita. She has one daughter, Julia.

Collections

Leonard's work is held by major collections, including the University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art., and the International Center of Photography in New York City. The Museum of Modern Art in New York holds 62 of her photographs, all of which are digitized and available on their website.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Joanne 1940 births Living people 20th-century American photographers University of Michigan faculty 20th-century American women photographers University of California alumni American women academics 21st-century American women

Early life

Career

Collections

Bibliography

Further reading

References