Lynda Benglis / Untitled III

Bio

Lynda Benglis (b. 1941) is an American artist best known for her use of poured sculptural forms made from wax, latex, metal, and foam. She moved to New York at the apex of Minimalism in the 1960s and, from then, her work has engaged with both the physicality and process of material-based practices while simultaneously confronting femininity in the context of a male-dominated art world. Using brightly colored polyurethane foam and incorporating wide-ranging influences, such as Abstract Expressionism, Process Art, Minimalism, Feminist art, geological forms, and ceremonial totems, Benglis developed her instantly recognizable sculptural language of undulating, oozing biomorphic forms. Along with other feminist artists, she challenged the cool, rationalist premise of the male-dominated Minimalist movement, refusing to accept limitations, whether political or aesthetic. In addition to sculpture, Benglis works in video and photography, and has used media interventions (such as a well-known ad placed in Artforum in 1974, showing the artist nude with a dildo between her legs) to explore notions of power and gender relations.

Benglis’ work is in extensive public collections including: Guggenheim Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Most recently, Benglis was the subject of an international retrospective, which traveled to The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; The Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Le Consortium, Dijon; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; New Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Lynda Benglis lives and works in New York, Santa Fe and Ahmedabad, India.

Lynda Benglis (1941), lives and works in New York, Santa Fe and Ahmedabad, India.