Wing 1970

Lynda Benglis made this form, named 'Wing', with fluid, fleshy moves, maybe thinking about skin, or the ocean. This object comes into being in the making—poured, layered, dropped—a back and forth between accident and intention. I can almost feel her figuring out how to coax this thing into being, pushing the form this way and that. It’s tempting to imagine what she was thinking. Was she looking at other sculpture? Was she mad at someone? The sculpture has a wet look to it, a kind of shimmer. It feels thick and alive, like a living form, maybe some creature from a sci-fi movie, or a bit of coral, clinging to a reef. It makes me think of other artists who are grappling with material: Eva Hesse, maybe, or Lee Bontecou. They are all in conversation with one another across time, inspiring each other. Painting and sculpture—it’s an embodied exchange, an ongoing attempt to express feeling through touch and form. It welcomes multiple readings, always shifting, never fixed.