Jan Serr: Face It at Lawrence University

Hoffmaster Gallery, Wriston Art Galleries, Appleton, WI

Milwaukee-based artist Jan Serr repeatedly returns to the human figure in her work. This exhibition explores her substantial body of work in self-portraiture in painting, drawing, and print mediums from different moments in her prolific career. In addition to demonstrating Serr’s deft touch and command of visual forms, the self-portraits reveal her ability to convey multiple aspects of her own personality and a wide range of emotional responses.

March 29 – May 10, 2024

A Biography in Portraits

This exhibition covers three simultaneous, layered and overlapping ideas. 

The first idea is biography. The artist painting herself to discover who she is, discovering different selfs as she matures as an artist and person. Today I look at the exhibition as a whole and I ask myself who is this young woman from long ago who uses my name and wears a Stetson hat? Why is she doing that? There is another young woman wearing headphones that halo her head. She’s transfixed. What music is she listening to? Is she a singer? Is she singing along? Another woman, fresh out of the bath, buff and unblushing. At some point I renamed myself, “Janice Serr” became “Jan Serr” – blunt, bold, naked.

A second idea is art history, or, why the Figure? In 1963, age 20, I was a music major, piano and voice. As a freshman, I sang the solo lead with the college choral concert. I knew my body, how to stand, breathe, project, and gesture. When I took my first visual art course, instructors and classmates were working in the styles of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. I asked a different question, why not paint myself? As a vocal soloist I was accustomed to people looking at me as if I were an artist’s model. I turned the look around. What did I look like? Might I wear a Stetson hat or headphones or wear nothing whatsoever? The Singer became the Self. I was more interested in people and myself than I was in a Brillo box or existential angst. 

The third idea is the wonderful discovery of materials and processes. The earliest works are traditional oils on canvas. Over time I added watercolor, charcoal, pastel, pencil, collage, or a mixture of all of them, mixed media. Working with master printer John Gruenwald, I learned how to make lithographs, etchings, aquatints, monotypes and often a mixture of these as well. 

One self-portrait is only a self-portrait, but a series is a biography.

— Jan Serr, March 2024