Joan Snyder joins Thaddaeus Ropac Announcing representation of the American painter

The American abstract artist Joan Snyder has joined Thaddaeus Ropac in a partnership that will see the Austrian gallerist represent the 83-year-old painter in Europe and Asia. Canada gallery, located in New York’s Lower East Side neighbourhood, will continue to represent Snyder in the US.

Snyder began working as an artist in 1970s New York and was an early member of the feminist movement. Her compositions often have a narrative element and draw on her life experiences. Snyder may be best known for her Stroke paintings, named for their seemingly chaotic and gestural brushwork.

“Joan Snyder's important contribution to the field of American abstraction from the 1970s onwards is distinguished by her intuition for fearless mark-making and composition,” Ropac said in a statement. “The unmistakable qualities of her painterly gesture forcefully communicate the joys, pains and beauty of being alive in the world.”

Snyder has been working as an artist for six decades, and her colourful, maximalist works are held in the collections of major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; and Tate Modern in London. Snyder’s first show with Thaddaeus Ropac will take place at the dealer’s London location in November, according to the gallery.

The market for Snyder’s work has increased in the past few years. The top three records for her work at auction have all been set within the past year. Her most valuable painting ever sold at auction, The Stripper (1973), fetched $478,800 with fees at the Christie’s New York 20th Century Evening Sale in November.