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Joe Andoe

“I’m feral and wonder in the meantime” — Joe Andoe

Joe Andoe, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a contemporary painter renowned for his austere yet evocative depictions of everyday subjects, including roadsides under cloud-filled skies, horses, dogs, and flowers. Employing a reductive painting technique, Andoe covers entire canvases with thick oil paint and then wipes away sections while still wet to reveal the image beneath, producing works that combine enigmatic minimalism with rich, tactile texture. In his memoir Jubilee City(2008), Andoe wrote, “Since the late ‘70s I have fancied myself a landscape painter, and a painter of the things that hang around on the landscape,” reflecting his lifelong fascination with the visual and symbolic elements of the American landscape. In his recent work, he expands this vision by developing cinematic interpretations of American mythologies, often drawing comparisons to the photographic explorations of teenage life in Tulsa by Larry Clark. Through this lens, Andoe’s oeuvre emerges as a comprehensive depiction of the American spirit and its cultural iconography.

Spanning five decades, Andoe’s career began in the 1990s with exhibitions at Blum Helman, the legendary gallery founded by Irving Blum and Joseph Helman, which also represented artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, and Andy Warhol. His work has been exhibited widely at major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Fisher Landau Center, the Hall Art Foundation, the New York Historical Society, the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Denver Art Museum. Andoe’s paintings are held in prominent permanent collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Detroit Institute of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others, solidifying his place as a pivotal figure in contemporary American painting.

  • Biography

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  • Bibliography

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Selected artworks

  • Joe Andoe,                                      10/31/23, 2023

    Joe Andoe 10/31/23, 2023

    Oil on linen
    142.2 x 215.9 cm
    56 x 85 in

  • Joe Andoe,                                      To be titled 7/3/22, 2022

    Joe Andoe To be titled 7/3/22, 2022

    Oil on linen
    66 x 180.3 cm
    26 x 71 in

  • Joe Andoe,                                      Untitled 9/26/22, 2022

    Joe Andoe Untitled 9/26/22, 2022

    Oil on linen
    162.6 x 137.2 x 3.8 cm
    64 x 54 x 1 1/2 in

  • Joe Andoe,                                      Double Pony's 6/3/20, 2020

    Joe Andoe Double Pony's 6/3/20, 2020

    Oil on linen
    162.8 x 132.1 x 5.1 cm
    64 1/8 x 52 x 2 in

  • Joe Andoe,                                      Mary , 2004

    Joe Andoe Mary , 2004

    Oil on linen
    146,4 x 208,6 x 3,8 cm
    57 5/8 x 82 1/8 x 1 1/2 inches

  • Joe Andoe,                                      Super Highway, 2010

    Joe Andoe Super Highway, 2010

    Oil on linen
    147,3 x 208,3 x 3,8 cm
    58 x 82 x 1 1/2 inches

  • Joe Andoe,                                      Untitled (Road in Color), 1998

    Joe Andoe Untitled (Road in Color), 1998

    Oil on linen
    152,4 x 127 x 5,1 cm
    60 x 50 x 2 inches

  • Joe Andoe,                                      Untitled (Big Blue Jay) 6/12/21, 2021

    Joe Andoe Untitled (Big Blue Jay) 6/12/21, 2021

    Oil on canvas
    182.9 x 152.4 x 3.8 cm
    72 x 60 x 1 1/2 in

  • Joe Andoe,                                      Rainbow road part 2 5/25/18 (for Jp), 2018

    Joe Andoe Rainbow road part 2 5/25/18 (for Jp), 2018

    Oil on linen
    160 x 261 x 2,5 cm
    63 x 102 3/4 x 1 inches

Selected press