Images of works by artist Betty Tompkins
Images by Betty Tompkins
The large scale photorealistic paintings of heterosexual intercourse which Betty Tompkins made between 1969 and 1974 were practically unknown when they were exhibited together for the first time in New York in 2002. Knowledge of Tompkins’ paintings immediately broadened the repertoire of first generation feminist-identified imagery. More significantly, their materialization made manifest an unacknowledged precursor to contemporary involvement with explicit sexual and transgressive imagery. Shown at the Lyon Biennale in 2003 beside Steve Parrino’s equally wayward abstractions, Betty Tompkins’ work garnered extraordinary attention. The first painting in the series – there are only eight extant early Fuck Paintings – was acquired for the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou/CNAC in Paris. (A satisfying postscript given that the paintings were detained by customs officials and ultimately denied entrance to France in 1973; a situation that was repeated two years ago when Tompkin’s work was sent to a gallery in Japan.).........
Although Betty Tompkins’ work is not included in LA MOCA’s current Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibition, it figures prominently in Richard Meyer’s essay for the show’s catalog, Hard Targets: Male bodies, Feminist Art and the Force of Censorship in the 1970s. Meyer notes the essentialist bent of much early feminist-associated art and outlines the marginalization melded the phalocentric or coitus-concerned work of heterosexual women artists. Given the context, Tompkins’ straightforwardness and refusal to moralize is bracing. This, coupled with a ferociously deadpan humor, makes the artist’s images iconic.
Mitchell Algus, 2007 press release.
WHAT'S NEW:
Consider The Oyster at James Graham & Sons, NYC
September 23-October 30, 2010

Curated by Ingrid Dinter.



Visible Vagina at Francis Naumann Gallery, NYC
January 28 – March 20, 2010

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Ghada Amer, Beth B, Judie Bamber, Tracey Baran, Nancy Becker, David Beideman, Hans Bellmer, Mike Bidlo, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Brinker, Judy Chicago, Carol Cole, Maureen Connor, Gustave Courbet, Tee Corinne, John Currin, Sarah Davis, James Dee, Jay Defeo, Jim Dine, Leo Dohman, Marcel Duchamp, Carroll Dunham, Tracy Emin, India Evans, John Evans, Valie Export, Robert Forman, Neil Gall, Kathleen Gilje, Guerrilla Girls, Nancy Grossman, Barbara Hammer, Jane Hammond, Mona Hatoum, Stanley William Hayter, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, David Humphrey, Don Joint Paul Joostens, Pamela Joseph, Mel Kendrick, Elisabeth Kley, Jeff Koons, Mark Kostabi, Shigeko Kubota, Zoe Leonard, Sherrie Levine, Lee Lozano, Henri Maccheroni, Chema Madoz, Réné Magritte, Gerard Malanga, Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, Marcel Mariën, André Masson, Sophie Matisse, Ana Mendieta, Allyson Mitchell, Cathy de Monchaux, Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu, Gladys Nilsson, Yoko Ono, Pablo Picasso, Chloe Piene, Richard Prince, Daniel Ranalli, Oona Ratcliffe, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Katia Santibanez, Peter Saul, Naomi Savage, Egon Schiele, Carolee Schneemann, Mira Schor, Michelle Segre, Tom Shannon, Cindy Sherman, James Siena, Laurie Simmons, Kiki Smith, Julie Speed, Nancy Spero, Betty Tompkins, Kiyoshi Tsuchiya, John Tweddle, Tabitha Vevers, Douglas Vogel, Robert Watts, Hannah Wilke, Terry Winters, Beatrice Wood.

www.francisnaumann.com/EXHIBITIONS/VV/index.html



elles@centrepompidou, Paris, France
May 27, 2009 - February 21, 2011

For the first time in the world, a museum will be displaying the feminine side of its own collections. This new presentation of the Centre Pompidou's collections will be entirely given over to the women artists from the 20th century to the present day. Curated by Camille Morineau.



Naked! Size Matters at Paul Kasmin Gallery, NYC
July 9 - September 19, 2009

Curated by Adrian Dannatt and Paul Kasim




Revolver at COCO, Vienna
May 7 - June 21, 2009

The title of the exhibiton is derived from the word »revolve«: »to circle, to spin around«. The basic idea is to show the world(s) an artwork creates, includes or evokes. What revolves around a work of art? In »Revolver« we would like to present a layer of description usually left to commentators (critics, curators), the observer, or in the case of the artist, to the artist's statement or anecdotes. These descriptions are often quite casual: remarks at an opening, conversations, short tales that envelop the works like dust. They are often heterogenous, mixing very different aspects of a work and the biography of the artist. With »Revolver« we are trying to show an artwork's universe on its own level, its everyday life, its affinities and distances - portraits of artworks, not of artists.

There is a strong feminist tradition in dealing with issues of representation and anecdote in the past 40 years and we are deliberately trying to make a link with this tradition. We believe this approach makes apparent aspects that are crucial to the actual experience of an artwork, but are rarely represented.

Artists: Nina Beier, Anne Collier, Ruth Ewan, Adriana Lara, Lorna Macintyre, Flora Neuwirth, Mai-Thu Perret, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Anne Schneider, Betty Tompkins, Rita Vitorelli
Curated by Severin Dünser and Christian Kobald.

http://www.co-co.at/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=0&lang=en

www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/ryan/viennafair6-23-09.asp

 



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