Lisa Yuskavage

Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2003

“The fact that Lisa Yuskavage does bear up under the tensions inherent in her style, and has been doing so for some 15 years now, may account for the fact that her work gives me such an otherwise inexplicable sense of jubilation. Because the work contains this tension, it is almost impossible not to be both attracted and repelled by it—and when experienced with a certain degree of intensity, this attraction/repulsion becomes a species of the sublime.”

Barry Schwabsky, “Lisa Yuskavage,” MAP Magazine, March 2007

Lisa Yuskavage is best known for her unique approach to painterly depictions of the classical nude. Early works by the artist created during her time at the Tyler School of Art reflect her classical training and predisposition to the European representational tradition by way of their impressionistic depiction of figurative scenes. Yuskavage was heavily inspired by Degas during this period, when the artist was also lifeguard and aerobics teacher at a local bathhouse. Watching all these men and women hanging around the pool”, she has said “brought to mind the atmosphere of boredom in the work of Degas’s ballet schools and whorehouses. So that’s what I started doing—transposing Degas’s ideas and compositions to the swimming pool” (Jenkins, Tamara “Holy Innocents,” in Deborah Aaronson (ed.), Lisa Yuskavage: Small Paintings, 1993-2004, pp. 14-15). The influences of her early inspirations carry through to her work today, where figurative painting remains as the foundation of her artistic expression.  

Lisa Yuskavage has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the world and forms part of collections including the Hammer Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, ICA Boston, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. In 2020, a solo show of Yuskavage’s work was presented at The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Aspen Art Museum.