You can probably imagine the shock that readers of the November 1974 Artforum were in for when they came across Lynda Benglis's rather provocative two page ad. She - all dressed up in just a pair of sunglasses - stood there with not one but a gargantuan double ended sex toy clutched rather theatrically in her hand.
Lecherous Eye
The way she was tensed up, her skin glistening in the light, and the tan lines on her skin which were never ever that faint created a real challenge to the viewer - an image that was intentionally confrontational. It was part of a whole artistic project that really got into the idea of playing up the absurdity of sex & power - all to promote an upcoming exhibition, not to attract the usual guys to gaze at it with a lecherous eye, but to really shake up some expectations of what those symbols actually mean. It provoked one heck of a debate.
Fig.1 "Artforum Advertisement 1974 " by Lynda Benglis
Healthy Dose of Sarcasm
Critics promptly accused her of just trying to get a bit of publicity even though the piece was all about just how artists have to sell themselves. Others went further saying it just undermined all the hard work that feminists had been doing, but a lot of people also saw it as a healthy dose of sarcasm aimed directly at representation, consumerism and basically what makes someone an artist in the first place.
Fig.1a
High Relief
Benglis played many different roles in one single image - glamorous, traditionally masculine - and by blending all those different roles together she threw into high relief just how hard it can be to make a living as an artist and at the same time managed to poke fun at people who get really hung up on what a woman is supposed to be & who gets to be in charge. All these years later the picture is still all the rage because it was just so bold in questioning what we really think of as normal. And it still keeps on getting talked about because it just gets you thinking about how men & women show up in the world of art.
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