Lynda Benglis Knots & Videotapes 1972–1976

‘Sparkle knots’ in the artist’s Baxter Street studio, New York City, 1972 © Lynda Benglis. Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo: Lynda Benglis.

Thomas Dane Gallery
11 Duke Street, St James’s
London SW1

8 May–27 July 2024

The first half of the seventies saw Benglis wrestle with the hard-edge aesthetics of the sixties, distorting its orthodox forms and ideologies—scrunching, twisting and knotting them up. Freezing these tussles in time, Benglis embellishes each of her “knots” with sparkles, plaster and paint, or even sprays them with metallic coatings. It is easy to see the progression from Hoofers I & II (1972) to the “knots” proper, as Benglis starts to contort and experiment with her materials, beginning with long tubular pieces of wire mesh covered with cotton bunting and plaster, twisting and tying these forms before adorning them with paint, glitter and other decorative materials. Synthesising her own encounters with Barnett Newman’s “zip” paintings and Here sculptures, as well as Eva Hesse’s “anti-form” compositions, Benglis both absorbs and interrogates her artistic surroundings of the time.

More Here: Thomas Dane