Ida Applebroog - Portraits

Ida Applebroog (1929–2023) described herself as ‘a woman artist with feminist concerns’ and was one of the foremost feminist artists of her generation. She came to prominence in New York in the 1970s with a series of small self-published books that she sent in the mail, and became known for both her instantly recognisable style of simplified forms with bold outlines, and her focus on themes of violence and power, and on women in the domestic, social and sexual arenas. Focusing on three key series of works made between 2006 and 2019 (Monalisa, The Ethics of Desire, Angry Birds of America) and including the very last Palette paintings she made in 2021, this fully illustrated book celebrates the singularity of Applebroog’s visual imagination. An essay from Jo Applin, an established authority on Applebroog’s practice, examines Applebroog’s feminism in the context of ageing; curator and writer Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti turns her attention to humour in Applebroog’s work; and Andrew Coppola, one of Applebroog’s studio assistants, sheds new light on her working practices.