A Little Late: Lynda Benglis at the New Museum

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Lynda Benglis at the New Museum, February-June 2011

Lobby Gallery: Contraband, 1969, pigmented latex, 116.25 x 393.33 x 3 inches

Whitney Museum of American Art purchase, with funds from the Painting Sculpture Committee and partial gift of John Cheim and Howard Read, 2008

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2009

Really, I didn’t mean to wait until the show was over (June 16), but until I get that clone I’ve ordered, I just can’t do it all—or do it all on time, anyway. So today we take a look at Lynda Benglis, the artist’s recent retrospective at the New Museum.

Represented by four decades of sculpture and dimensional painting (along with some Super-8 films, work on paper and, yes, the infamous double dildo), Lynda Benglis reminds us that a range of seemingly incongruous concepts like formal, visceral, erotic, political, playful, beautiful and messy could come from the same artist--indeed, possibly be shoehorned into one work. Not only that, her range of ideas is matched only by her expansive embrace of materials: latex,  polyurethane foam, phorphorescent pigments, beeswax, plastic, glass, and cast bronze, lead and aluminum.

Benglis is an artist for whom process is integral. In several early works she poured rivers of pigmented latex onto the floor. Like her more-or-less contemporary, Eva Hesse, those latex pieces have not withstood the passage of time; what were once vibrant and supple rivers of color are now yellowed and brittle floor sculptures. But much of the work looks great, pristine even, especially the poured cascades of pigmented polyurethane, or the built-up layers of beeswax on long, tongue-like forms.
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Did Benglis redefine sculpture? I don't know. But she certainly seems to have approached it fearlessly. And idiosyncratically. No matter what the form or substance, when you see it, you know it's hers.

If you want to see more, there's a catalog. Benglis is represented by Cheim & Read Gallery (in fact, many of the pieces on view in this exhibition I first saw at the gallery).

Here’s a look at the show, images courtesy of the New Museum, as no photgraphy was allowed. 

Material heaven: Installation view of Lynda Benglis, second-floor gallery

Karen, 1972, wax on wood, 36 x 5 x 3 inches

Collection of Howard Read

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2009

Detail below  

Cocoon, 1971, wax on wood, 35 x 5 x 5 inches

Courtesy George and Nancy Rosenfeld

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2009

Phantom, 1971, polyurethane foam with phosphorescent pigments; five elements approximately 8.5 x 35 x 8 feet

One element Collection of Elizabeth Goetz

Courtesy of Cheim & Read Gallery, New York

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS,  London/VAGA, New York 2009

This phosphorescent work was certainly the most dramatic. In a darkened room, the five forms emanated an unearthly aura, like giant glow-in-the-dark Jesuses gone horrifyingly wrong. And I mean that in a good way. Occasionally the lights came up to "recharge" the phosphorescence, and then blackness again, just you, a handful of strangers, all quiet, and those five forms.

Installation with Quartered Meteor, left, 1969-75, lead, 57.5 x 65.5 x 64.25 inches; 

Sparkle Knot V on back wall, full view below

Sparkle Knot V, 1972; acrylic paint and sparkles on plaster, cotton bunting and aluminum screen; 42 x 25 x 13 inches

Courtesy of the artist and Cheim & Read Gallery, New York

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2009 

Eat Meat, 1973, bronze, 24 x 80 x 54 inches

Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery and Cheim & Read Gallery, New York

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2009

Wing, 1970, cast aluminum, 67 x 59.25 x 60 inches

Courtesy of the artist and Cheim & Read Gallery

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS,  London/VAGA, New York 2009 

Smile, 1974, cast lead (maybe tin?), 15x5 x 6.5 x 2.25 inches

Collection Paul Walter

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2009   

Female Sensibility, 1973, video

Courtesy of the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix, New York

(c) Lynda Benglis. DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2009

What I love about Benglis's metal dildo sculpture and her kissing women (which is why I paired them here) is how transgressive they were at the time. Male artists were enjoying their unquestioned hegemonic hold on the art world, and Benglis's hold on a big dick really shook things up.  More here, which contains additional links.

JM photo from Still Powerful After All These Years, a report on a Lynda Benglis/Robert Morris show at Susan Inglett Gallery. (This framed spread from ArtForum was also in the NuMu show.)

Installation with Minos, 1978; gesso, gold leaf, and oil-based sizing on chickenwire, cotton bunting and plaster; 63 x 16.5 x 9 inches

Rose and Charles Gibbs


More Benglis coming up later this week in Four Sculptors at the Lesley Heller Workspace on the LES (alas, also over).