{"data":{"id":"95","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":95,"topgoose_id":2793,"tms_id":95,"display_name":"Lynda Benglis","sort_name":"Benglis Lynda","display_date":"1941–","begin_date":"1941","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eWhile best known as a sculptor, Lynda Benglis has also worked intermittently in photography, video, and installation art. Her sculptures, although typically abstract, often evoke body parts, organic forms, or the ebb and flow of natural forces: cascades of cast aluminum that cantilever improbably from the wall; knots of plastic and fabric, gaily painted; assemblages of beads and feathers that resemble peacocks. Restlessly experimental, Benglis is as adept with such traditional mediums as metal and ceramic as she is with unconventional materials such as beeswax, chicken wire, and paper.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo make \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/29112\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eContraband\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, Benglis\npoured five hundred pounds each of several\ncolors of pigmented latex onto the floor,\nallowing the colors to swirl and the material\nto congeal into a shape she could neither\nanticipate nor control. A signal work of\nProcess art—in which form emerges in the\nactivity of making and the work becomes\na record of its own creation—\u003cem\u003eContraband\u003c/em\u003e flouted the rigid geometries and neutral palette of much contemporaneous Minimalist art. In fact, although Benglis planned \u003cem\u003eContraband\u003c/em\u003e for inclusion in the Whitney’s landmark 1969 exhibition \u003cem\u003eAnti-Illusion:\nProcedures/Materials\u003c/em\u003e, she withdrew it in response to curatorial concerns that the work’s Day-Glo hues would overwhelm the show’s more monochromatic selections. In 2008 Benglis said of \u003cem\u003eContraband\u003c/em\u003e,\n“I think I’m painting with liquids but\nmaking objects that are dimensional, that\nhave a sense of their own space.” She\nfollowed this piece with other “spill” works—\nglobs of polyurethane foam massed in\ncorners and on walls and floors—and,\nin the four decades since, has produced a\nthree-dimensional body of work notable\nfor its range and innovation.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500092195","wikidata_id":"Q538986","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:36:14.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-31T07:00:35.607-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/95/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/95/exhibitions"}}}}