Lynda Benglis

With a career that spans over five decades, Lynda Benglis’s work explores the boundaries across art forms, between painting, sculpture and performance. Born in 1941 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Benglis first gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s with her groundbreaking works that broke away from the rigid structures of Minimalism.

Her bold experimentation and the visceral quality of her approach to materials and form are apparent in her use of unconventional materials such as latex, polyurethane foam, wax and glitter, which she manipulates to create dynamic and organic forms. These works often blur the line between sculpture and painting, creating a unique visual language that is both fluid and robust.

Lynda Benglis is known for her series of vibrant ‘pours’, for which she spilled coloured latex directly onto the floor. Responding to these, Life magazine dubbed her the heir to Jackson Pollock, although her practice rejected the masculine swagger of the Abstract Expressionists in favour of softer and less-traditional materials. Part painting, part sculpture, the ‘pours’ result in amorphous and spontaneous contours, colour arrested in a state of eternal suspension, and this technique with its emphasis on chromatic materiality, would influence her future ceramic works.

Lynda Benglis placed a controversial advertisement in Artforum magazine in 1974, promoting her exhibition at the Paula Cooper Gallery. The image, where she posed nude with a large dildo, was a deliberate act to subvert and rebel against the male-dominated art world and the representation of women in art and media.

Throughout her career, Benglis has continued to explore new materials and techniques, constantly evolving her practice. Her later works include large-scale metal sculptures, video art and installations that further demonstrate her versatility and innovative spirit. Benglis’s work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the world, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Modern in London.