Metal Force

Lynda Benglis rose to prominence during the 1960s for her series of vibrant ‘pours’, for which she spilled coloured latex directly onto the floor. Responding to these, Life magazine dubbed her the heir to Jackson Pollock, although her practice rejected the masculine swagger of the Abstract Expressionists in favour of softer and less-traditional materials. Part painting, part sculpture, the ‘pours’ result in amorphous and spontaneous contours, colour arrested in a state of eternal suspension, and this technique with its emphasis on chromatic materiality, would influence her future ceramic works. Indeed, Untitled, 2013, is perpetually on the verge of becoming, its verdant, organic figure forms a striking burst of life. Formally, the sculpture is almost indescribable; a descriptor that applies to much of her work, as Benglis resists classification by traversing and denying aesthetic boundaries. Her works are held in public collections worldwide including Tate, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

'Related to the idea of skin, is the idea of drawing form – this has interested me because my work is all about drawing, as well as volume, or lack of volume, or air. A lot of the forms I have done are vessels that are containing something, or not containing something, and are living and breathing' - Lynda Benglis