“Joyce Pensato [was] a painter who took the Abstract out of Abstract Expressionism and added a little Pop, making large-scale black-and-white paintings that transformed popular cartoon characters into ambiguous, emotionally complex and sometimes
scary creatures."
-Roberta Smith, The New York Times
Mission
The Joyce Pensato Foundation is dedicated to protecting and promoting the legacy of Brooklyn-born Joyce Pensato (August 20, 1941-June 13, 2019). Her irrepressible spirit and tireless commitment to depicting the interwoven pleasure and pathos of American culture made her the embodiment of an artist’s artist during the early years of her career and ultimately earned her widespread acclaim. The Foundation’s purpose is threefold: to collaborate with museums to mount exhibitions; to support the publication of a definitive catalogue of Pensato’s work; and to secure a permanent home for the artist’s work and archive.
“I realized I had to get back to who I was: messy, dirty, edgy. And that’s when everything good happened again. Just don’t give a shit, work, drip all over the place, whatever. That was freedom."
-Joyce Pensato
For more information, contact:
Karen Stein, Executive Director
[email protected]
