07 - Lynda Benglis, Untitled

Lynda Benglis
American, b. 1941

Untitled
1992 - 1993
Ceramic
Gift of the Kathryn C. Wanlass Foundation
2016.73

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Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1941, Lynda Benglis graduated from Newcomb College in 1964 and became a third-grade teacher. After a year of teaching, Benglis moved to New York City where she began courses at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and became immersed in the local art community. This immersion led to jobs at several galleries and artist workshops before Benglis began teaching again, this time as a professor at universities across the United States.

While in New York, Benglis was inspired by the famous drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, but instead of dripping paint on canvas, she preferred to create in a three-dimensional space using latex, plastic, foam and wax. As she continued as a sculptor Benglis incorporated other media into her creations, including photography and video. Throughout her art career, Benglis has used her art to confront issues of gender, identity and sexuality, with some of her more controversial works re-envisioning the traditional female nude.