Acquisition complements the installation of the artist’s ‘Wave of the World’ in City Park
NEW ORLEANS, La. — The New Orleans Museum of Art has acquired Wing, a 1970 sculpture by artist Lynda Benglis, with funds provided by The Helis Foundation and additional funds provided by the Frierson Art Purchase Fund. In the 1960s, the Louisiana native shocked the New York art world with her electric-hued sculptures and art installations, whose vibrant colors and free-form compositions ran counter to the more austere minimalist aesthetic of much art of the time. Benglis created these works, which she called “fallen paintings,” by dripping and pouring industrial materials like latex and polyurethane directly on gallery floors or upon armatures installed on museum walls. Wing, a large scale aluminum sculpture cast from one of these poured pieces, extends dramatically out from the wall to enter into the space of the viewer. Wing is the earliest, largest and most significant work by Benglis in NOMA’s collection.
“This acquisition underscores NOMA’s efforts to strengthen our collection and showcase influential international artists,” said Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director at NOMA. “The longtime generosity of The Helis Foundation serves as an important anchor for so many NOMA initiatives and its support exemplifies a true investment in the museum’s present and future.”
Calling forth natural phenomena like erupting volcanoes and crashing waves, Wing foreshadowed a number of cantilevered outdoor fountains Benglis began creating in the 1980s. The first of these, The Wave of the World, was commissioned for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans. Following the close of the Fair in 1984, the fountain sculpture sat hidden for decades in a former sewage treatment plant in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner. Benglis personally undertook and supervised the complete restoration of the work when it was rediscovered in the summer of 2014. Through the generosity of The Helis Foundation, these works are now on simultaneous view for the first time—Wing in NOMA’s galleries, and The Wave of the World adjacent to the Big Lake in City Park.
“The Helis Foundation is honored to be a part of bringing Lynda Benglis’ work to public view in her home state of Louisiana,” said David Kerstein, President of The Helis Foundation, the recipient of the New Orleans Museum of Art’s prestigious 2016 Isaac Delgado Memorial Award. “We are proud to ensure that these significant and influential works of art by one of Louisiana’s most important artists are available for residents and visitors to enjoy.”
In 1977, Benglis participated in the New Orleans Museum of Art exhibition Five from Louisiana as one of five Louisiana artists who had gained international prominence. These artists included Robert Rauschenberg, Tina Girouard, Richard Landry, and Keith Sonnier. NOMA owns six works by Benglis in a variety of media. The works currently in the collection include a photo collage (Untitled, n.d., 2008.74.5, a gift of Herbert and Dorothy Vogel), and five sculptural works including Untitled, from the Pinto Series, 1971 (81.98), a beeswax and wood sculpture; Vulpecula, 1984 (86.149) and Triple Knot, 1990 (97.851), both “pleated” sculptures of wire mesh that have been twisted and spray-coated with metal); Big Eye, 1985 (87.187) and Untitled, 1995 (96.355), two small-scale glass “knots.” The museum lacked a significant example of her work from the 1960s and 1970s until now. Wing is the earliest, largest and most significant work by Benglis in NOMA’s collection, allowing the museum to fully represent Benglis’ career and providing context and counterpoint to the works listed above.
About NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The New Orleans Museum of Art, founded in 1910 by Isaac Delgado, houses nearly 40,000 art objects encompassing 5,000 years of world art. Works from the permanent collection, along with continuously changing special exhibitions, are on view in the museum’s 46 galleries Fridays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The adjoining Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden features work by over 60 artists, including several of the 20th century’s master sculptors. The Sculpture Garden is open seven days a week: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden are fully accessible to handicapped visitors and wheelchairs are available from the front desk. For more information about NOMA, call (504) 658-4100 or visit www.noma.org. Wednesdays are free admission days for Louisiana residents, courtesy of The Helis Foundation. (May not include special exhibitions.) Teenagers (ages 13-19) receive free admission every day through the end of 2015, courtesy of The Helis Foundation.
About The Helis Foundation
The Helis Foundation is a Louisiana private foundation, established and funded by the William Helis Family. The Helis Foundation’s Art Funds were established by bequests from Diana Helis Henry and Adrienne Helis Malvin. The Art Funds make grants to sustain operations, to provide free admission to, and to acquire significant art works on behalf of major institutions within the Metropolitan New Orleans area. The Art Funds also underwrite major exhibits and projects, such as Contemporary Art Center’s 30 Americans, Prospect.3’s Basquiat and the Bayou presented by The Helis Foundation, the Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition presented by The Helis Foundation, Airlift’s Roving Music Village in City Park, installation of Lynda Benglis’ The Wave of the World, and The Helis Foundation Enrique Alférez Sculpture Garden.
About Lynda Benglis
In America, Lynda Benglis lives and fabricates in New York, Santa Fe, NM and Walla Walla, WA. She is also inspired by and works in her domiciles in Greece and India. Lynda Benglis was first recognized in the late sixties with her poured latex and foam works. Benglis’s work is deeply concerned with the physicality of form and how it affects the viewer, using a wide range of materials to render dynamic impressions of mass and surface: soft becomes hard, hard becomes soft, and gestures are frozen. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts grants, among other commendations. Benglis’s work is in extensive public collections including: Guggenheim Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, The Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Benglis was the subject of an international retrospective which traveled to The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, The Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Le Consortium, Dijon, The Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Image credit:
Lynda Benglis, Wing, 1970, Cast aluminum, 67 x 59 ¼ x 60 inches (170.2 x 150.5 x 152.4 cm), New Orleans Museum of Art, 2015.123, Museum Purchase with
Funds Provided by The Helis Foundation and additional funds from the Frierson Art Fund, Photograph by Cheim & Read, New York
Contact:
Allison Gouaux
(504) 658-4106
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