Lynda Benglis

Erich Hauser Foundation (courtesy of the artist)

Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1998)

Ketterer Kunst Munich, 19 June 2021, lot 671

Acquired from the above sale by Galerie F. Hessler, Luxembourg

Atlanta, Heath Gallery, Lynda Benglis, 1992-1993

“I like the idea that you can create something that can look back at you and that does something that you can experience. I am trying to work with pieces that have a presence in sculpture that goes beyond the formal attitude.” — Lynda Benglis (Anna Dickie, “Lynda Benglis,” Ocula Magazine, 28 February 2015)

In the late 1960s, after having studied traditional canvas-based painting, Lynda Benglis started experimenting with sculpture. Throughout her career, she used a wide range of materials to create works that question the physicality of forms and challenge viewers' sensory perception of space. With her groundbreaking artworks, Benglis pushed the boundaries of an until then largely male-dominated art world.

Tactile and intuitive, Palm Phallus/Landscape II, typifies Benglis’ multifaceted practice. The apparent creative process of the making as well as the bi-colored and bi-textured aspect of this work renders the artist’s ability to portray movement and life in a static object. The terracotta sculpture, with its biomorphic and sexual shape, can be seen as an extension of the human body which causes viewers to reconsider their physical existence. Embodying materiality and gesture, this work is a reminder that both art and the human body remain palpable spaces even in a world where everything is becoming intangible.