Juanita McNeely

Juanita McNeely (March 13, 1936 – October 18, 2023) was an American feminist artist known for her bold works that illustrate the female experience in her nude figurative paintings, prints, paper cut-outs, and ceramic pieces.

[4][5] In her early years, McNeely spent time at the Saint Louis Art Museum, where she saw works by Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, and the German Expressionists.

Under the careful eye of Werner Drewes, who served as her inspiration, McNeely began rigorous training in composition and technique.

By her sophomore year, the professors allowed her to work without models at her request because of her intuitive knowledge of the human form.

She later recalled that an anatomy teacher pulled her aside during class and told her "Look, you will never make it as an artist...because you're too skinny and you don't look like a good f...k." This experience also contributed to the feminist themes in her work.

[6] After a short hiatus in Mexico, McNeely began her graduate studies at Southern Illinois University, where she worked on a Happening with Allan Kaprow.

[6][7] While at Southern Illinois University, McNeely decided that she was ready to go to New York City, where she moved in 1967 with her husband and opened a studio in the East Village.

[2] In 1968, she completed Woman's Psyche, a multi-panel work that Sharyn Finnegan has described as a "tragic vision of monthly bleeding.

"[6] Maryse Holder characterized it an image of "an Everywoman deep with primal mysteries" in the " depths of the female experience.

From 1981 to 1982, they lived and traveled for six months in France, where McNeely suffered an accident that damaged her spinal cord and forced her to use a wheelchair.

[15][16] Fight Censorship sought to change the conservative society that barred feminist artists from jobs and exhibitions.

[18] Her art has been described as illustrating the fear in most women of "physical vulnerability, embodying all of [her] sexual functions and their possibly devastating consequences.