OPEN TODAY UNTIL 20:00

Lynda Benglis
In the Realm of the Senses

CONTEMPORARY ART

NOVEMBER 22, 2019 UNTIL MARCH 15, 2020

THE EXHIBITION

Across a span that covers half a century –from 1969 onwards– the thirty-six sculptures in this concise retrospective displayed Benglis’s diverse imagery, ideas and methods. The show also presented three key ancient artefacts generously lent by the Museum of Cycladic Art itself.

Benglis’s distinctive materials include beeswax, bronze, aluminium, latex, ceramics, paper, fabrics and glass. Her stylistic repertoire encompasses the iconic early ‘fallen paintings’, ‘knots’, ‘lagniappes’, ‘torsos’, ‘pleats’ and ‘fountains’. Throughout, the selection stresses visual conversations, as it were, between textures (liquid-looking, delicate, strongly metallic, and so forth), color (gold’s uniform glow versus the multi-hued papers layered over wire armatures) and orientation (flowing horizontals that oppose totemic verticals). Often, a sense of sparse solemnity mingles with a deliberate, almost gaudy playfulness. Thus Benglis ever defies conventional boundaries between ‘high’ and ‘low’ aesthetic categories.

In the Realm of the Senses celebrated a maverick artist who began her career as a female pioneer of Post-Minimalism in the late 1960s and still works with joyous freedom in the twenty-first century. Describing Benglis’s first wax reliefs, as early as 1968 a New York critic noted that “skin, pull, sensuousness” ranked among her primary concerns. Such intense corporeal sensations continue into the present – as Benglis’s achievement constantly shifts between fixity and movement, nature and flesh, surfaces and interiors, with a virtuosity both graceful and bold.

Η έκθεση In the Realm of the Senses τιμά μια καλλιτέχνιδα που ξεκίνησε ως πρωτοπόρος του Μετα-Μινιμαλισμού στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 1960 και εξακολουθεί να δημιουργεί με ενθουσιασμό στον εικοστό πρώτο αιώνα. 

Στις αρχές του 1968, ο κριτικός και γκαλερίστας της Νέας Υόρκης Klaus Kertess επεσήμανε ότι ‘το δέρμα, η έλξη, ο αισθησιασμός’ ήταν ανάμεσα στις βασικές της ανησυχίες. Οι έντονες σωματικές αισθήσεις συνεχίζονται και σήμερα – καθώς η τέχνη της Benglis αλλάζει διαρκώς, ακροβατώντας με χάρη και τόλμη ανάμεσα στη στασιμότητα και την κίνηση, τη φύση και τη σάρκα
Δρ. David Anfam

ΜΕΣΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΚΘΕΣΗ

Installation view
01
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
02
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
03
Storm Pattern, 2003 Bronze 73.7 x 68.6 x 63.5cm Courtesy of the Artist and Pace Gallery
© Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
Installation view
04
Installation view, In the Realm of the Senses
Courtesy NEON © Natalia Tsoukala
Installation View
05
Installation view – In the Realm of the Senses – Greater Prairie Chicken/Lesser Prairie Chicken, 2014 Handmade paper over chicken wire, coal tempera, acrylic, gold leaf 210.8 x 20.3 x 21.6 cm Courtesy of the Artist and Pace Gallery. Untitled, 2001, Steel wire coils covered with translucent abaca paper, pigment, laminate 203.2 x 10 cm Private Collection, Lagniappe 11,1979, Cast pigmented paper, acrylic, sparkles, gold leaf, iridescent polysterene film Edition 6 of 16 96.5 x 381 x 20.3 cm Private Collection, Athens , Glass rod used for stirring cosmetic liquids in perfume bottles 1st cent. AD (Museum of Cycladic Art Th.N. Zintilis Collection, inv. Z 345b)
©Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
Installation view
06
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
07
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
08
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
09
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
10
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Artwork photo (Catalina, 1980)
11
Catalina, 1980, Courtesy of the Artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and Pace Gallery
© Lynda Benglis, Photo: Todd White Photography
Installation view
12
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
13
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
14
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
15
Installation view, Courtesy NEON The Graces, 2003-2005 Cast polyurethane, lead, stainless steel, in three parts (i) 241.3 x 76.2 x 68.6 cm (ii) 261.6 x 66 x 66 cm (iii) 287 x 54.6 x 58.4 cm
© Lynda Benglis. Licenced by VAGA at ARS, NY Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York // Knossos, 1978 Chicken wire, cotton bunting, plaster, gesso, oil based sizing, gold leaf 154.3 x 52 x 20.3 cm Private Collection, courtesy of Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki ©Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
Installation view
16
Installation view – Cygnus, 1982 Bronze wire mesh, sprayed zinc, copper, aluminum, acrylic lacquer 64.8 x 114.3 cm Private Collection, Athens // Greater Prairie Chicken/Lesser Prairie Chicken, 2014 Handmade paper over chicken wire, coal tempera, acrylic, gold leaf 210.8 x 20.3 x 21.6 cm Courtesy of the Artist and Pace Gallery, Clay Boeotian female figurine with tall headdress, in a hieratic stance. It has been made in a single mould ca. 400 BC (Museum of Cycladic Art, Ch. Politis Collection, inv. 101)
© Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
Lynda Benglis
17
Lynda Benglis
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
18
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
19
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Lynda Benglis in the exhibition
20
Lynda Benglis
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
21
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
Installation view
22
Installation view, Figure 4, 2009, Alluminium, 250.2 x 168.9 x 63.5 cm
Courtesy of the Artist, Pace Gallery and Thomas Dane Gallery London, Naples © Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
Installation view
23
Installation view – Come, 1969-1974 Bronze Edition 2 of 3 35.6 x 81.3 x 121.9 cm, Private Collection, London Swiggle II, 1978 Brass wire mesh, cotton bunting, plaster gesso, oil based size, gold leaf 27.9 x 15.2 x 6.9 cm Private Collection, Gold Luster, 1981 Glazed ceramic 1 of 1 HC 73.6 x 50.8 x 11.4 cm Private Collection
©Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
Installation view
24
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
01
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
02
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
03
Storm Pattern, 2003 Bronze 73.7 x 68.6 x 63.5cm Courtesy of the Artist and Pace Gallery
© Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
04
Installation view, In the Realm of the Senses
Courtesy NEON © Natalia Tsoukala
05
Installation view – In the Realm of the Senses – Greater Prairie Chicken/Lesser Prairie Chicken, 2014 Handmade paper over chicken wire, coal tempera, acrylic, gold leaf 210.8 x 20.3 x 21.6 cm Courtesy of the Artist and Pace Gallery. Untitled, 2001, Steel wire coils covered with translucent abaca paper, pigment, laminate 203.2 x 10 cm Private Collection, Lagniappe 11,1979, Cast pigmented paper, acrylic, sparkles, gold leaf, iridescent polysterene film Edition 6 of 16 96.5 x 381 x 20.3 cm Private Collection, Athens , Glass rod used for stirring cosmetic liquids in perfume bottles 1st cent. AD (Museum of Cycladic Art Th.N. Zintilis Collection, inv. Z 345b)
©Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
06
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
07
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
08
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
09
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
10
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
11
Catalina, 1980, Courtesy of the Artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and Pace Gallery
© Lynda Benglis, Photo: Todd White Photography
12
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
13
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
14
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
15
Installation view, Courtesy NEON The Graces, 2003-2005 Cast polyurethane, lead, stainless steel, in three parts (i) 241.3 x 76.2 x 68.6 cm (ii) 261.6 x 66 x 66 cm (iii) 287 x 54.6 x 58.4 cm
© Lynda Benglis. Licenced by VAGA at ARS, NY Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York // Knossos, 1978 Chicken wire, cotton bunting, plaster, gesso, oil based sizing, gold leaf 154.3 x 52 x 20.3 cm Private Collection, courtesy of Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki ©Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
16
Installation view – Cygnus, 1982 Bronze wire mesh, sprayed zinc, copper, aluminum, acrylic lacquer 64.8 x 114.3 cm Private Collection, Athens // Greater Prairie Chicken/Lesser Prairie Chicken, 2014 Handmade paper over chicken wire, coal tempera, acrylic, gold leaf 210.8 x 20.3 x 21.6 cm Courtesy of the Artist and Pace Gallery, Clay Boeotian female figurine with tall headdress, in a hieratic stance. It has been made in a single mould ca. 400 BC (Museum of Cycladic Art, Ch. Politis Collection, inv. 101)
© Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
17
Lynda Benglis
© Natalia Tsoukala
18
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
19
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
20
Lynda Benglis
© Natalia Tsoukala
21
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala
22
Installation view, Figure 4, 2009, Alluminium, 250.2 x 168.9 x 63.5 cm
Courtesy of the Artist, Pace Gallery and Thomas Dane Gallery London, Naples © Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
23
Installation view – Come, 1969-1974 Bronze Edition 2 of 3 35.6 x 81.3 x 121.9 cm, Private Collection, London Swiggle II, 1978 Brass wire mesh, cotton bunting, plaster gesso, oil based size, gold leaf 27.9 x 15.2 x 6.9 cm Private Collection, Gold Luster, 1981 Glazed ceramic 1 of 1 HC 73.6 x 50.8 x 11.4 cm Private Collection
©Panos Kokkinias Courtesy NEON
24
Installation view, Courtesy NEON
© Natalia Tsoukala

Curated by

David Anfam