Art and the Maryland Institute College of Art. As of 2013, she is Professor Emeritus of Painting at Rutgers University. In 2000 Semmel taught at International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, Austria. Work About major themes in her work, Semmel states, "While my work developed through series, the connecting thread across decades is a single perspective: being inside the experience of femaleness and taking possession of it culturally." Though Semmel has created many different series throughout her career, the majority of her oeuvre features themes of sexuality, the body, intimacy and self-exploration both physically and psychologically. First Erotic Series (1970–71) The First Erotic Series depicts heterosexual couples having sex. The subject matter is explicitly erotic, but the compositions give a nod to abstraction with expressive, unnatural colors and a strong emphasis on individual forms. These large scale depictions of sexual activities reclaimed gaze of the female nude, which heralded an unprecedented approach to painting and representation in the 1970s. Second Erotic Series (1972–73) Referred to by Semmel as "fuck paintings," the Second Erotic Series paintings are sharp and realistic but retain the intense, unnatural colors of the First Erotic Series. The paintings are based on photographs of a man and woman having sex, which Semmel took over several sessions with the couple's consent. When no commercial gallery in New York would show the series, Semmel rented space in SoHo and exhibited the work herself, attracting attention from critics. Semmel refused requests by Penthouse and Playboy to publish work from the series. Erotic Yellow (1973) was used without her permission in the “Hot Erotic Art” issue of Screw magazine (May 1974). Possible interpretations of the Erotic Series Joan Semmel, like said before, contained a fascination with the human body and including it within her art pieces in a sensual form. But, unlike her male chauvinist counterparts, she believed that women need to be represented how they should have always been presented within the art community; without categorizing females as a whole. Semmel takes us back to looking at the whole concept between an individual who is naked and one who is nude. The “Ways of Seeing” allows us to understand that “To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a