Fair and Fair Alike: Miami 2009. Bourgeois, Benglis and Wilke

Fair and Fair Alike coverage so far:
. Mano a Mano
. The Pretenders
. Art Miami
. Red Dot
. NADA
. Scope
. Aqua Art
. Pulse
. The Big One, Art Basel Miami Beach
. An Overview Before the Individual Fairs
. Art Bloggers at Art Miami
. Are We Out of the Woods?
. A Little Gossip
. Art? Or Not Art?
. Nosing Around
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Last year at the big fair, in the booth for Carolina Nitsch Gallery, Carolee Schneeman was represented by her Interior Scroll (detail left, encased like a relic) and by black and white photographs from the original performances in 1975 when she pulled that folded scroll from ther vagina. Schneeman's performance even back then was kind of shocking. It was instant feminist art history, widely documented in contemporary feminist journals. It took a while for the artist and her work to become part of the larger overview, but seeing it at the fair, amid the blue-chip offerings, I realized it had been nudged into art history. .
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ABMB: Louise Bourgeois, selection of sculptures; at Cheim & Read, New York

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Louise Bourgeois, with her long life of artmaking, is art history. Lynda Benglis, at least 30 years younger than Bourgeois, has moved into that realm with her ceaseless exploration of materials. And Hannah Wilke (1940-1993), who used her body transgressively to flaunt sexist ideas and taunt sexist thinking, has moved into that realm as well. Indeed, when I first saw the pink labias at the Alison Jacques Gallery at the big fair, I thought, "Some is ripping off Hannah Wilke!" I need not have worried. The gallery dedicated most of the booth to Wilke's work. .

This post is a look at the work, exhibited at the fairs, of those three artists.
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ABMB: Bourgeois, above and below, with images and objects representing the eternal maternal; at Karsten Greve, St. Moritz

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ABMB: Benglis poured latex work, Untitled, 1970; at Cheim & Read, New York
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ABMB: Benglis, Centaurus, 1986, cast aluminum
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Detail below
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ABMB: Approaching the Alison Jacques Gallery, b/w photographs of Hannah Wilke, above and below
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Wilke: Above and below, two views of Untitled (white), 1977; group of 18 white, painted, glazed ceramics

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Wilke: Above and below, Untitled (pink), 1977, group of 38 pink, painted, unglazed ceramics

Next up: House

Still Powerful After All These Years

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Lynda Benglis is a Material Girl, employing mediums to suit her message, whether it's latex, wax, glass, fabric, collage, or video. You might have seen her poured latex floor pieces? Or perhaps her sculptural wax paintings? Or her metal wall sculptures cast from pleated fabric?

Benglis also has a strong political streak, and her early work questioned gender roles. Her video of two women making out, included in The Female Gaze, is tame by today's standards, but back then it was transgressive.

And then there was the giant dildo.

In 1974 a lean and buff Benglis had herself photographed wearing nothing but sunglasses, holding a giant latex phallus between her thighs. The photograph was meant to be part of an Artforum feature on the artist in November that year, but the editor John Coplans (who, excuse me, spent a good portion of his career photographing and exhibiting his own little weenie) and a few of the editors, balked. Benglis and her then dealer, Paula Cooper, placed it as an ad in the same issue. Touche.

Power grab: Lynda Benglis in the November 1974 issue of Artforum

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Benglis's now iconic image was the keystone of a recent show at Susan Inglett Gallery, along with one of Robert Morris, bare chested and wrapped with chains, right. The show, Lynda Benglis/Robert Morris: 1973-1974, examined the two images and the art world's strong reaction to them, especially Benglis's. The two artists were friends, and the thesis of the exhibition is that each artist's transgressions help informed the other's.

We, of course, have 35 years of objectivity in reconsidering these images: He was in chains; she could not be more unfettered.

Robert Morris in a 1974 poster for his exhibition at Castelli-Sonnabend Gallery

I remember the ad when it came out. I was horrified and thrilled at the same time. It was a feminist act. And the issue is still relevant. A man with fake breasts would never have caused the same brouhaha. But a woman with a penis? She was assuming power, baby. And her power was the biggest on the block.

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Letter to the editor: Can you read it?

"It's about time 'Artforum' had an identity crisis. Lynda Benglis has created some problems. She got a lot more than $2000 worth of advertising, tested the limits of 'good taste' and, in my humble opinion, made the strongest feminist statement you've ever printed."

Pages from the Artform article on Benglis. The ad appeared up front; this article by Robert Pincus-Witten was in the "well" where the features are

Read more:
. Press release from Susan Inglett Gallery
. Roberta Smith's July 24 review in the New York Times
See more:
. Benglis's work at the Cheim & Read Gallery

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