Pretty / Dirty Indeed

Some exhibits make me anxious, even before I see them.

Occasionally an art exhibit shows up in a magazine or in a social media feed that worries me. And not for the reason you might think. I get anxious because I might not get around to seeing it. The exhibit is temporary, and in a city far away. And with no plans to visit said city, my chances of experiencing a show I really want to see seems bleak.  Such was the case with Marilyn Minter.

Marilyn Minter is one of a handful of artists that I actively look for.  Her work is always more spectacular when seen live. And it's surprisingly hard to find her paintings in museums and galleries.  Plus, she's a woman. And I feel like women artists still get the shaft when it comes to big retrospective exhibitions. So I'm all for making an extra effort to see a show by a woman.

And there's the Living Painter Game. As a totally nerdy Art fan, I like to play little art world mind games.  One of my favorites I call the Living Painter Game.  The rules of the game are simple: if money were no object, who would be the five living painters you would choose to own, listed in order of preference.  On my list, Marilyn Minter is number two.  

So it's no surprise that when a business trip had me in New York City late on a Thursday, I decided to stay the weekend, take in a few Broadway shows, and make the trek to the Brooklyn Museum to see Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty. Ms. Minter and the Brooklyn curators made it well worth the effort.  Here are a few of the reasons why.

Marilyn Minter is a feminist voice like few others. Minter's explorations of the way "women view, mask, and display" themselves have often gotten her into trouble with the general art world as well as with feminists. For example, some feminists found her porn paintings "traitorous."  But Minter wondered, "Why can't we make sexual images for our own production? It's a way to own power."

This is a technically spectacular show. One of the reasons I like to play the Living Painter Game is because great painting is incomprehensible to me.  And these paintings are particularly perplexing. The paint is applied with such skill and artistry it's mind boggling. The emotionally and intellectually charged results are spectacular. Their licking and dripping mouths, their flawed yet flawless shoes, and their unsettlingly jeweled views of women, create images that are fascinating. I could easily live with one or two of these paintings for the rest of my life and never fully unravel their mysteries.

Understanding an artist's process makes the work more intriguing. I love that this exhibit featured so much of Minter's early work.  I love the photos of her mother that were the result of an undergraduate assignment.  It's obvious that Minter had strong thoughts about the portrayal of women from very early in her career. And some of her early, photo-realistic paintings of sinks and linoleum offered interesting insight into her later style of painting.

Enough of me yammering on.  The images are far more intriguing. And while these photos make for a dramatic online gallery, they can't come close to generating the emotional energy the original paintings spark. This exhibit made me anxious in a different a way as well. A way that was much more exciting.

Pop Rocks

2009, Enamel on metal

This room-sized painting shows off Minter's substantial skill at using enamel paint. Minter uses metal as a substrate because enamel cracks over time on canvas.  The medium dries quickly so these paintings are created with many layers of paint, the last applied with fingers to ensure a perfectly blended finish.

The Coral Ridge Towers

1965, printed 1995, Gelatin silver prints

The Coral Ridge Towers photographs were the result of an undergraduate assignment. The museum card notes, "The ways in which women view, mask, and display themselves, is exemplified in the extreme by her mother's narcissicm, reflected in the many mirrors of her home."

Little Girls #1

1986, Enamel on Canvas, three panels

Little Girls #1 considers how the female body is viewed even from an early age. "The funhouse-style mirroring suggests the distorting effects of traditional notions of beauty and femininity imposed by this gaze."

Little Girls #1, Detail

1986, enamel on canvas, three panels

The Benday dots are a fine-art nod to the Pop artists of the 1950s and 60s. However the content of these paintings seems to critique the sensibility of Pop's mostly male cast.

Big Girls

1986, Enamel on canvas, two panels

Sink Study

1978, Oil on unstretched canvas.

I loved this painting which foreshadows Minter's future work, whether it's the photorealism, the willingness to represent life's grittier details, or the attention to the captivating nature of food.

Rouge Baiser

1994, Enamel on metal

The extreme phallic nature of this women's staple stays true to Minter's themes of the way women present themselves, frequently in environments where they need to challenge the power of men.

100 Food Porn

1989 - 90, Enamel on metal

From the museum notes: "Twenty years before the rise of foodie culture, 100 Food Porn drew connections between the work of food preparation (shucking, peeling, de-veining, and cutting) and sexual activity. The paintings borrow from the language of drips and splashes in the work of Abstract Expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock."

Porn Grid

1989, Enamel on metal, four panels

From the museum notes: "These paintings portray cropped images appropriated from pornography and embellished with suggestive paint splashes and drips. At the time this work was shown, the subject matter, and Minter herself, sparked controversy."

Meltdown

2011

Enamel on metal

The grand scale, luscious liquid imagery, and female footwear help this image leap off the gallery walls.

Dirty Heel

2008, Enamel on Metal

Minter's paintings of women's feet in lavish heels juxtapose this poshness against the grit and grime of life on the city streets. The results are always strange and beautiful.

Glazed

2006, Enamel on metal

Drizzle (Wangechi Mutu)

2010, Enamel on metal

From the museum notes: This painting depicts artist Mangechi Mutu, a friend of Minter's. Minter typically employs models in her shoots, and Mutu was likewise provided with expert makeup, designer clothes, high heels, and fake nails. The dripping gold liquid pouring from Mutu's mouth is a combination of vodka and metallic food coloring, a material trick that Minter employs to slimy, opulent effect."

Blue Poles

2007, Enamel on metal

From the exhibition notes: "Painted at the crucial moment before the complete dominance of Photoshop in the fashion industry, blue Poles zooms in on one professional model's bodily realities: fair follicles, straying eyebrows, freckles, and a ripe pimple. Her eyes are smeared in shimmering blue makeup, and Minter's signature layering of enamel paint crisply details the abstract landscape of her face. The work's title is an allusion to Jackson Pollock's Number 11, 1952, also known as Blue Poles, a mural-sized Abstract Expressionist painting where allover drips are punctuated with dynamic vertical poles."

Installation View

Torrent

2013, Enamel on metal

Defrost

2015, Enamel on metal

Black Orchid

2012, Chromogenic print