Joanna Frueh


Joanna Frueh was an artist, writer and feminist scholar.

Early life

Frueh was born on January 18, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois to Erne Rene Frueh and Florence Frueh. Both parents were well educated, her father in visual arts and her mother was a classical pianist. Together they authored a book about Chicago stained glass, which was published by Loyola University Press in 1983. Their two successive homes in Highland Park were designed by architects Crombie Taylor and Robert Tague.

Education

Frueh received her Bachelor of Art from Sarah Lawrence College, in 1970; a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago, in 1971; and her PhD, from the University of Chicago, in 1981.

Career

She was the director of Artemisia Gallery, in Chicago, one of the earliest women's art galleries in the United States during 1974–1976. Her book Monster Beauty: Building the Body of Love, dealing with the aesthetics of beauty, pleasure and the erotic in everyday life was published by the University of California Press. Her writing combined theory with autobiography, photography, and poetry to develop these concepts. She was also a performance artist.
Frueh authored and edited several books, notably Erotic Faculties and Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective ; and was coeditor of Picturing the Modern Amazon, Feminist Art Criticism: Art, Identity, Action, and Feminist Art Criticism: An Anthology. She wrote articles and reviews for Art in America, Art Journal, AfterImage, High Performance Magazine, and New Art Examiner, among others.
Freuh was also a photographer and performance artist; many of her photographs are collaborative self-portraits. Her work was exhibited internationally.

Teaching

She was Professor of Art History Emerita at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she served from 1990 to 2006. Prior to that she was assistant professor of art history at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, and the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Awards

Frueh was awarded a Women's Caucus for Art Honor Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts in 2008.

Published works

Books

Frueh died in Tucson, Arizona on February 20, 2020, due to complications from breast cancer. Her archives are at Stanford University Library Special Collections.