I ncreasingly recognized as one of the leading sculptors of the late 20^th century, Lynda Benglis’s groundbreaking practice defies classification, dissolving the barriers between movements and media. Most commonly grouped alongside Minimalists like Donald Judd and Carl Andre, Benglis represents a foil to the characteristically masculine minimalist movement – responding to their cold, systematic forms with uniquely organic and dynamic sculptures that draw from a range of sources, from ancient Greek statuary to abstract expressionist painting to her own female anatomy. With recent scholarship reframing Benglis as a key figure in post-minimalist and feminist art, she is now firmly established as one of the most significant artists of the past half-century.

Belonging to a series of pleated wall sculptures which stand out as a pinnacle moment in the artist’s career, Willy’s typifies Benglis’s diverse practice. Like billowing wings or cascading ocean waves, Willy’s alludes to natural movements which offer a sense of familiarity yet remain decidedly alien, perhaps even threatening. With every turn, torque, and fold, the work projects a sense of life and dynamism; despite the sheer weight and rigidity of the material, these metal structures miraculously achieve a sense of lightness and flexibility that hints to their underlying mesh structure, appearing to float like billowing cloth. Art historian Anna C. Chave says of these works, “Benglis’s expansive, shimmering, pleated works appear buoyantly, ebulliently, kinetically fluid—like giant, artlessly tied, crinkled bows undergoing their various twists and turns” (Anna C. Chave, “Lynda Benglis: Everything Flows,” in Lynda Benglis: Everything Flows, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, 2013 p. 15).

Combining the industrial fabrication process of sculptors like Judd and Andre with the immediacy and intimacy of painting, Benglis pioneered an innovative process known as spray casting to create these pleated wall sculptures. She began by designing and manipulating a mesh armature by hand, then, in collaboration with local fabricators, would spray the understructure with layers of hot liquid metal to create a solid surface, which, once hardened, Benglis repeatedly polished by hand to attain its brilliant shine – returning the artist’s hand to the process of artistic creation. Benglis experimented with various patinas, accentuating the folded ridges of the surface to reflect light, movement, and texture across her metallic forms. Throughout the 1908s, these metal reliefs grew in complexity and scale, from singular folded forms into larger works like Willy’s, composed of knots of pleated metal extending out in several directions.

Willy’s is also exemplary of the influence of Greek art on Benglis’s practice – most evident in her 1980s pleated bronze works which echo the flowing drapery of ancient Greek sculptures. Benglis grew up in a Greek-American family and made several trips as a child to visit her paternal grandparents in the Mediterranean, where she visited ancient sites such as the Acropolis in Athens (which Benglis saw for the first t.mes when she was only eleven). Considering Benglis’s extensive travels and Greek family background, one cannot help but associate her dramatic pleated forms with the draped garments of classical architecture and statuary. In fact, titles from this series, such as Hydra (1982) and Megisti II (1984) have references to Greek mythology, constellations, and geography. But whereas Ancient sculptors carved away or subtracted material from a block of stone, Benglis extends sculptural traditions as she works with pliable materials to build up abstract forms.

Visceral and tactile in nature, the present work offers a sensory experience for viewers that challenges their perception of space, echoing larger installation works such her acclaimed 1968 installation Fallen Painting at the Albright-Knox Museum, in which the Benglis created a sculpture by pouring paint onto the floor. But whereas the viewer intrudes on the space of these floor installations, Benglis’s pleated wall sculptures protrude into our space, turning the agency from viewer to object. Moreover, whereas her floor works were paintings installed as sculptures, her wall-mounted works read more sculptures installed as paintings, again flipping the narrative of her earlier works and underscoring Benglis’s tirelessly inventive artistic project.

Artist

Lynda Benglis