Joyce Reopel

Joyce Reopel (1933–2019) was an American painter, draughtswoman and sculptor who spent the first half of her career working on paper and gesso, in an array of old master media including pencil, aquatint, ink and wash, goldpoint — and an "impeccable" silverpoint. "[A]n extraordinary draftsman, working in the difficult medium of silverpoint and goldpoint," New York Times reviewer John Canaday said, "In this meticulous, demanding technique she draws with full assurance, building strong forms, frequently eerie, with unfaltering definition.... perfection." Noting that her work "reflect[ed] a scholarly interest in Renaissance masters," ARTnews also noted that Reopel's "self-possessed, incisive technique [was] devoted not only to conventional subjects (anatomy, flowers) but to such less traditional themes as pregnancy and childbirth"

Alongside sculptor Mariana Pineda and painters Barbara Swan, Hyman Bloom, Arthur Polonsky, Mel Zabarsky and others, Reopel's work helped upend a conservative art world for "non-traditional" artists and clear a path for other women artists. In the process, she helped pioneer the American art movement known as Boston Expressionism, now in its third or fourth generation, with a lasting local and national influence.