Joan Lyons 1975

Curator: Mike Mandel's portrait of Joan Lyons, circa 1975, presents her almost as a baseball card—but there's something quietly defiant about it. What's your first take? Editor: I'm immediately drawn to the tension between the subject matter – baseball, a traditionally male domain – and Lyons' gaze, which seems both confident and slightly bemused. I’m thinking about how the artist employed printing processes, in the context of challenging the canon and access to what was deemed ‘high art.’ It feels both playful and pointed, right? Curator: Absolutely. There's a gentle rebellion at play here, maybe? It's a conceptually interesting portrait of the artist herself and also an accessible photograph that's almost instantly graspable to those who had no prior knowledge about art. The photographic print appears grainy; less polished—the feel is more everyperson, wouldn't you say? Editor: The materials used, specifically print photography, suggest accessibility and reproducibility – inherently democratic qualities, allowing broader dissemination and engagement beyond elite art circles. Think about the ease with which trading cards circulated, entering everyday life... how might Lyons position herself here within consumer culture? Curator: It invites us to reconsider traditional notions of portraiture, doesn’t it? I can imagine Lyons viewing the entire artmaking process—materials included—with equal playfulness. She challenges us to think about the narratives we construct around images, authorship, and cultural symbols. It almost seems to invite playfulness as well. Like we’re all on a team now. Editor: I’d have to agree. This makes us contemplate not just artistic materials but the cultural “materials” involved: the very notion of sport, gender, portraiture itself. And, how each can be deconstructed, repurposed, redefined. How empowering is that? Curator: So true. Thinking about it more now—the uniform, the bat… the beads! This portrait leaves us with more questions than answers about the layers and meaning that materials and symbols embody. Thanks for adding nuance to this one! Editor: And you, for deepening my perspective on artistic subversion within conventional modes.