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:
Art Basel Miami Beach
December 4-9, 2012

2 shows:

Galerie Rodolophe Janssens, Art Basel Miami Beach, Brussels

Venus over Manhattan, Fuck -Betty Tompkins Works on Pper 1969 - 2010

venusovermanhattan.com/exhibition/fuck



Art Brussels
April 19-22, 2012

Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels



Fuck Paintings at Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
February 16 - March 17, 2012

Betty Tompkins started painting large scale, photorealistic, detailed images of penetration, masturbation or the female genitalia in 1969.

Her intent from the start was to have two disparate elements in order that "the abstract and the sexual content - coexist equally in the work." Or as she says : " I realized that if I cut off all the identifiers - heads, hands, feet, etc. - I could create these beautiful abstract images out of the part of the photograph that was most compelling which, of course, was the explicit sex part. »

www.galerierodolphejanssen.com/exhibitions/39-betty-tompkins/images



Grisaille at Luxembourg & Dayan, NYC
November 7, 2011 - January 14, 2012

Curated by Alison Gingeras.

www.luxembourgdayan.com/



Art Basel Miami Beach
December 1-4, 2011

Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels.



FIAC, Paris
October 20 - 23, 2011

Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels.



F/ilthyGorgeousTh/ings/ Interview with Betty Tompkins
January issue.

by Christina Voss.

Betty Tompkins paints gorgeous photorealistic works of art on a monumental scale, all explicit, detailed images of penetration, masturbation, and the female genitalia. Her first Fuck Painting was created back in 1969, and after a group show in the early 1970's, they were more or less left untouched by critics and dealers, seemingly due to their visual content. In 2003, the Centre Pompidou acquired Fuck Painting #1, and since then, there's been a new appreciation for the power, poignancy, and sheer beauty of her work.



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Copyright © 2007 Betty Tompkins, All Rights Reserved