These three artists approach abstraction from different angles and with varying ends: Joan Mitchell (American, 1925-1992)’s Sunflower is a monumental example of pure painterly abstraction in the traditional materials of oil on canvas; thumbing her nose at her Minimalist contemporaries, Lynda Benglis (American, b. 1941) used the newest industrial materials of the day to revive the very Abstract Expressionist style that her peers sought to negate; with its uncannily pliable, flesh-like material, Hannah Wilke (American, 1940-1993)’s work strives to make gesture come alive, reconciling it with the body that creates it.
Selected works
