Torso Mask I

Lynda Benglis is a major American artist who upended the art world from the 1960s with her poured pigmented latex works defying the boundaries between painting and sculpture. A committed feminist, she established herself in a male-dominated field through a radically new plastic language and the use of unconventional materials. At the heart of her work is a series of metal torsos created in the 1970s, directly inspired by the Caryatids of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens. Cast in aluminium, bronze or stainless steel, these torsos are distinguished by their pleated and draped surfaces that create the illusion of fabric frozen in metal. Benglis creates a fascinating tension between the rigidity of metal and the organic fluidity of the human body, as if the material had been caught in mid-movement. Unlike the classical tradition, her torsos do not rest on a pedestal but spring from the wall, fully inhabiting the surrounding space. They reinterpret the female body no longer as a passive object but as an active and powerful sculptural form. Torso Mask I (1992) magnificently extends this legacy, pushing even further this dialogue between Antiquity and modernity. These works remain among the most iconic of her career.