Joan Logue

Biography

Through an intimate and elegant use of the medium, Joan Logue's work defines the art of video portraiture. Capturing the essence of subjects that range from avant-garde artists to New England fishermen, her video portraits are minimalist dramas — precisely composed, richly nuanced, and highly expressive of the character of the "sitter."

In 1980, Logue began the 30 Second Spots, an innovative series of video portraits that she terms "commercials for artists." These succinct "spots" use the format, style, and condensed timeframe of television advertising to present unconventional portraits of vanguard artists, musicians, writers, and performers. Each subject performs a concise gesture or action in close-up before a stationary camera; Logue heightens this intimate theater with a precise application of electronic effects.

Producing portraits in cities around the world, she has collaborated with such well-known figures as Laurie Anderson, David Hockney, Philip Glass, and Jacques Derrida. Logue's first video portraits, begun in 1972, were silent, extended examinations of the faces of friends, family, and neighbors. Eloquently reinterpreting the photographic portrait for a time-based medium, Logue's video project extends her earlier work as a portrait and still photographer.

Logue was born in 1942. She trained as a painter and photographer, receiving a B.F.A. and an M.A. from St. Mary's College in Los Angeles. Logue, who was one of the founders of the video program at the American Film Institute, has also taught at California Institute of the Arts, UCLA, and Otis/Parsons. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the French Ministry of Culture, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Her works have been widely broadcast and exhibited at institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; International Center of Photography, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Videonale Bonn; and Second Bank of the United States (Portrait Gallery), Philadelphia. She lives in New York.