Foreword
Charles Esche, director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Enrique Juncosa, director, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
François Orivel, president, Le Consortium, centre d'art contemporain, Dijon
Ann Woolsey, director, Rhode Island Museum, Providence
Lisa Phillips, director, New Museum, New York
(p. 4-7)


Lynda Benglis is not identified as a performance artist in the strict sense of the term, but the idea or act of performing underlies almost all of her work. Known primarily as a sculptor, the variety of materials that Benglis has poured, cast, modeled, molded, applied, and manipulated is extensive and impressive— ranging from beeswax, pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, and her unedited readiness to experiment or “perform” with any available process or technique that marks her career from its early stages of the late 60s/early 70s to the present.

Benglis's emphasis on gesture and scale in relation to her body would become an on-going theme— from the early wax paintings, poured latex floor pieces, and polyurethane foam installations to her metalized knots and later works in clay and resin as well as seminal experiments in video from 1972-77. Benglis's evolution is considered in light of the women's movement of the 1970s and how that movement related to the concurren, pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, gculated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mculated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, glitter, paint, aluminum, bronze and other metals, clay, and glass to photography and video. Some works are intended for galleries or domestic settings, others are made for outdoor public spaces, designed for the pages of journals, or circulated through the mail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, , pigmented latex, polyurethane foam, gail. It is the primacy of material or medium, which Benglis stretches to its limits, t proliferation of the hybrid genre of performance art.