Janet Sobel builds a world where images slowly dissolve into fields of paint.
Her early works depict simplified figures in decorative environments rooted in folk traditions. Over time, pattern and pigment spread across the surface, filling the space with dense networks of color.
Figures and faces begin to appear within these fields rather than being drawn in advance.
In Sobel’s world, the image emerges from the density of paint itself.
In most painting traditions, the image is planned before the paint is applied. A drawing establishes the composition and the painting follows.
Janet Sobel works in the opposite direction. She pours and drips paint directly onto the surface, allowing gravity, density, and movement to spread pigment across the canvas. Layers accumulate into dense networks of color.
At first there is no image, only the movement of paint. Gradually, faces, figures, and cosmic forms begin to appear within the field.
The image is not designed in advance. It emerges from the behavior of the material itself.
1. Janet Sobel in her Brooklyn apartment. Photographer unknown. Artwork © Janet Sobel.
2. Janet Sobel at work. Photographer unknown. Artwork © Janet Sobel.
3. Janet Sobel, Milky Way, 1945. Enamel on canvas, 44 7/8 × 29 7/8 in (114 × 75.9 cm). Gift of the artist’s family. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Artwork © Janet Sobel.
4. Janet Sobel, The Burning Bush, 1944. Enamel on canvas. Photo © Museum Associates / LACMA. Artwork © Janet Sobel.
5. Janet Sobel, Heavenly Sympathy, c. 1947. Enamel on canvas. Photo © Edward C. Robinson III. Artwork © Janet Sobel.
6. Janet Sobel, Untitled, c. 1946. Enamel on canvas. Photo © MoMA / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY. Artwork © Janet Sobel.
7. Janet Sobel, Untitled, c. 1942. Artwork © Janet Sobel. Collection Svetlana Zueva.
8. Installation view: Janet Sobel: All Over, Menil Collection, February 23–August 11, 2024. Artwork © Janet Sobel. Courtesy The Menil Collection.
All images © their respective rights holders.
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