Brenda Goodman (born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

in 1943) is an American artist and painter currently living and working in Pine Hill,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Her artistic practice includes paintings, works on paper, and sculptures.

Background and education

Goodman received her

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

in 1965 from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. She received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies in 2017. From 1965 to 1975, when she moved to New York City, Goodman was a member of the

Cass Corridor The Cass Corridor is a neighborhood on the west end of Midtown Detroit. It includes the Cass Park Historic District, the Cass-Davenport Historic District and Chinatown, Detroit, Old Chinatown. The corridor's main street, Cass Avenue, runs parall ...

Movement, the group of artists from Detroit's

neighborhood whose work responded to the post-industrial decline sweeping the country. It has been noted that "as one of the few women associated with the movement, Goodman’s work is especially notable."

Work

Goodman has described her intuitive approach to painting as “akin to the improvisations of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

”. She has been recognized for her unorthodox use of painting materials and her exploration of both

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

and

representation Representation may refer to: Law and politics *Representation (politics), political activities undertaken by elected representatives, as well as other theories ** Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a ...

in her work, which often combines elements of both. Her self-portraits have been called "one of the most powerful and disturbing achievements of portraiture in modern art". John Yau writes "...Goodman had absorbed lessons from

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

, and

Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

, as well as from

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (; ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter from Duchy of Brabant, Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, gene ...

James Ensor James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic ...

Alfred Kubin Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin (10 April 1877 – 20 August 1959) was an Austrian artist, printmaker, illustrator, and occasional writer. Kubin is considered an important representative of Symbolism and Expressionism. Biography Kubin was born i ...

, and

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

Exhibitions

Goodman's work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums including one-person exhibitions at Sikkema Jenkins Gallery, Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Jeff Bailey Gallery, the College for Creative Studies Center Galleries, Paul Kotula Projects, and Life on Mars Gallery. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at

The Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a modern and contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. The institution was founde ...

in New York City, the

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, the

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of modern art, ...

, and the

Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The Aldrich has no permanent collection and is the only museum in Connecticut that is dedicated solely to the exhibition of contemporary art. The museum presents the first ...

in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Collections

Collections of Goodman's work can currently be found within: The Museum of Modern Art, The Birmingham Museum of Art, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The California Center for the Arts Museum, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Agnes Gund Foundation, Cranbrook Art Museum, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Museum of Contemporary Arts in Chicago, The First National Bank of Chicago, The American Medical Association Headquarters, and The Rutgers-Camden Collection of Art.

Recognition

Goodman has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants. She received a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in Painting, and an award from the Academy of Arts and Letters. Goodman has been a visiting artist at many esteemed colleges and universities across the United States and Canada including: The University of the Arts, The Parsons School of Design, Bard College
Hunter College
The University of Michigan, The University of Tennessee, and The University of Windsor.

References

External links

Official website

Kossak Painting Program video

Video interview on Gorky's GranddaughterTalk with John Yau at Life on Mars Gallery"Watching and Waiting", Essay on Hyperallergic