Who

Alternately adored and despised by critics, Yuskavage's paintings of nude women with cartoonishly large breasts have made her one of the hottest art world stars.

Backstory

The brassy, controversy-stoking Yuskavage got her MFA from Yale in 1986 and had her first solo show in 1990 at the Pamela Auchincloss Gallery. But it wasn't until the latter part of the decade that she really gained notice, with a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and a major solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in 2000. Yuskavage's nude paintings of a curvy blonde—a character she calls "Motherfucker"—are among her most famous pieces; her work, which often features borderline pornographic poses, has been both praised for being a commentary on how men view women and attacked as nothing more than exploitative kitsch. She is frequently compared to John Currin (a Yale classmate) and Kara Walker (with whom she's exhibited).

Of note

Dubbed the "premier bad-girl painter of the naughty late 1990s" by critic Roberta Smith, Yuskavage's loaded subject matter has always divided critics. One critic bemoaned the "the sheer ugliness and ineptitude of her work" and described her paintings as "fusing the aesthetics of Hallmark Cards and the knowing rhetoric of the graduate school seminar." Other critics have managed to disassociate the subject matter from Yuskavage's considerable skill as a painter. Regardless of the reception she's received from critics, she harbors few doubts about her own talent—she's proclaimed, "my real hero is me"—and collectors have swooned in recent years, plunking down record sums for her work. By 2004, her work was fetching half a million dollars; in 2006, the million dollar mark was exceeded. Yuskavage's collectors include Alberto Mugrabi, Charles Saatchi, and Jean-Pierre Lehmann.

Drama

After exhibiting with Marianne Boesky for many years, Yuskavage surprised many in 2006 when she dropped Boesky and switched to David Zwirner. Crushed by the loss—"I never thought after I got married, that I'd go through the feelings of getting dumped again"—Boesky later sold Yuskavage's 1998 painting Honeymoon at a Sotheby's auction for $1.02 million. Her fellow Zwirner stablemates include Marcel Dzama, Chris Ofili, and R. Crumb.

In print

Yuskavage has published a book of her paintings titled Lisa Yuskavage: Small Paintings, 1993–2004 (retail price: $50).

For the record

Yuskavage was one of several artists who photographed Kate Moss for a 2003 W profile of the model; the picture featured Moss posed on a bearksin rug, nearly naked (naturally).

Personal

She's married to artist Matvey Levenstein, whom she met at Yale. They live in a condo on East 2nd Street.