INSTALLATION: ARCHITECTURE: HOMELESS: pastels on canvas 140×360 inches 1987.
An earlier prototype for continued investigations.

Graupe-Pillard’s work has sometimes been expurgated for its frank nudity and explicitness. But it has never crossed the line into pornography; indeed, she frequently includes her own nude body with complete honesty, unafraid to show imperfections and aspects of aging.

This New Jersey artist cheerfully acknowledges her seventy-nine years. An artist her entire life, she continues to be as prolific as ever – if not more so. Although she has an apartment in New York City, and spent decades roaming its streets, photographing the city, and visiting museums, galleries, and movie theaters, Covid has kept her away this past year, and she has had to turn inward.

On February 20, 2021, we had a Zoom session: I asked how the pandemic has affected her art and her life. “I have worked every day,” she said. “I have to work. It calms me down.”

These days she cares less about careerism, and more about communication. She showed me numerous works from different stages of her career, and we chose 13 pieces:

WEAR ONE: 4×3 ft oil alkyd on wood 2020. This very recent self-portrait reveals an anguished Graupe-Pillard, hair tousled, with a bright yellow background and polka-dotted mask.

JARRETT: 4×3 ft oil alkyd wood 2021. A brand-new portrait of an artist she met with fabulous hair that seems to have a life of its own.

ADELE RAE WITH WINGS: 66×48 inches oil on canvas 2021. Recently completed, this little girl, a friend’s child, cheered the artist up. Graupe-Pillard added a hummingbird to enhance the joy.

END OF TIME: 4×3 ft oil on wood 2020. She came across a black and white photo of her father, and re-created in oil paint the pain of his last days. She was surely internalizing Covid in this personal but universal statement.

DILLON WITH MASK: 60×48 inches oil on wood 2020. The Colin Kaepernick T-shirt and coveralls emphasize Dillon’s young masculine body, hands as always important, and the pink background with his shadow.

WHAT’S INSIDE MET GREEK VASE: 2013 – a funny photo-collage group, of Graupe-Pillard “exploring” art (though there is also the serious side of the pun: she really does know and love art history), placing her naked presence into mostly historical male sculptures. Graupe-Pillard changes the context and meaning of the works.

PROTESTS: 48×72 inches oil/alkyd/wood, two panels, 2019. At the same time that Graupe-Pillard made portraits and photo-collages, she painted many political/abstract panels, such as this large painting combining politics, abstraction, and color.

JUPITER AT HOBOKEN 2ND ST. STATION PLANETARY PARK: painted steel and fiberglass 204x48x120 inches in diameter 2004. One of the artist’s many public art installations.

INSTALLATION THE DAY THE WORLD STOOD STILL. 9/11: oil/alkyd/canvas. Each painting is 96×65 inches. Done over a five-year period (2014-2019), addressing the tragedy and horror of September 11, 2001, and still in progress. Abstract, but not abstract.

REFUGEES III: 90×60 inches. oil/alkyd/canvas 2003. Brilliant, jigsaw-like, colorful, chaotic; political, but … reminded me of Jacob Lawrence (whom she loves).

KEYHOLE SERIES: GRACE WEEPING VIRGIN (ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN): oil/alkyd/canvas, 1995. Early intervention into masterwork plus self.

KAY AND JOE: oil/canvas. 60×84 inches. 1979. Earlier nude placed into the canon of Art History: ordinary bodies being extraordinary.