Lynda Benglis: “Phool”, 1980, plaster, bronze wire, and gold leaf, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, Patrons’ Permanent Fund and Gift of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel.
Lynda Benglis at the National Gallery of Washingon An exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, brings together sculptures, paintings, drawings, prints, and videos by Lynda Made between 1966 and 2003. March 22, 2020, through January 24, 2021.]]>
Source: National Gallery of Art, Washingon
In the late 1960s, American artist Lynda Benglis (b. 1941) expanded the boundaries traditionally assigned to media and gender with her bold, physical, and tactile works. Since then, Benglis’s endless innovation has made her a critical figure who has bridged and influenced several generations of artists. The 33 works in the exhibition reveal how Benglis has forged new forms by constantly exploring different techniques, materials, and mediums.
Since the start of her career, Benglis has made objects with a variety of malleable materials—like wax and molten metal—that transform from liquid to solid. Included in the exhibition are some of her earliest examples, such as “1st Wax Work” (1966), in addition to later works like “Jeantaud” (1986). A selection of works on paper, an important material to Benglis since the 1970s, includes three large-scale watercolors from the early 1980s, ink drawings, and a mixed-media collage made during the artist’s first visit to India in 1979. Also on view is one of Benglis’s signature “sparkle knots” and several other sculptures made of pleated, shaped, and tied metal—and in the case of “Moonglow Four” (1985), sand-cast glass and phosphorescent pigment. One gallery screens three of Benglis’s pioneering videos from 1972 and 1973, among the earliest examples of investigative, self-reflexive artist videos.
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