‘Marilyn Minter brings her decades-long engagement with the cultural politics of feminism uniquely to life through her virtuosity as a painter and photographer. With an unflinching gaze and a sympathetic sense of humour, Minter lays bare the often ridiculous cultural norms we so often take for granted.’ The Louisiana-born artist’s unique appeal neatly summed up there by Catherine Morris, Sackler family curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.
Marilyn Minter, Big Girls, 1986
Enamel on canvas (2 panels): 80 x 90 in.
Collection of Bill Contente, New York
Located at the Brooklyn Museum, the centre is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and Minter’s first retrospective — Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty — is part of a year of activity marking that milestone. The tone is set for the singular artist’s work in a series of photographs that document her troubled mother’s demise; captured whilst still a student in Florida (where she was raised), the faded glamour of her drug-addicted parent is a starting point for various bodies of work, all touched by the contradictory perceptions of beauty and femininity.
Pop-inspired works of the mid-1980s, a pioneer of food porn (sometimes literally) in the early 1990s, and a keen observer of ‘bling culture’ in current times; each stylistic swerve rich in sexual appeal and a devious desire to challenge taboos. Visceral in her representation of fashion and beauty, brazen in her ability to capture desire in all of its rawness, Minter is now revered as a feminist icon where she was once reviled for a use of uncompromising pornographic imagery. A truly unique trailblazer, challenging social norms through photography, painting and video work, the New York-based artist is as vital now as she has been since her practice began at the end of the 1960s.
Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty continues at Brooklyn Museum until 2 April.
Marilyn Minter, Blue Poles, 2007
Enamel on metal 60 x 72 in. (152.4 x 182.9 cm)
Private collection, London
Marilyn Minter, Rouge Baiser, 1994
Enamel on metal 48 x 48 in.
Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York
Marilyn Minter, Coral Ridge Towers (Mom Making Up)
taken in 1969, printed in 1995
Gelatin silver photograph 16 x 20 in.
Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody
Marilyn Minter, Orange Crush, 2009
Enamel on metal 108 x 180 in. (274.3 x 457.2 cm)
Collection of John and Amy Phelan
Marilyn Minter, Vampire, 2004
Chromogenic photograph face mounted to plexi 86 x 60 in.
Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York
Marilyn Minter, Armpit, 2006
Chromogenic photograph 40 x 30 in.
Courtesy of the artist, Salon 94, New York,
and Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Marilyn Minter, Coral Ridge Towers (Mom Smoking) taken in 1969, printed in 1995
Gelatin silver photograph 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody
Marilyn Minter, Pop Rocks, 2009
Enamel on metal 108 x 180 in.
Private Collection of Danielle and David Ganek
Marilyn Minter, Green Pink Caviar, 2009
HD digital video projection, 7 minutes 45 seconds
Courtesy of the artist, Salon 94, New York,
and Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Marilyn Minter, Little Girls #1, 1986
Enamel on canvas (3 panels): 68 x 86 in.
Collection of Jean-Olivier Despres, Paris
Marilyn Minter, Clip, 2005
Enamel on metal 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm)
Collection of Gregory R. Miller and Michael Wiener, New York
Marilyn Minter in her studio © Nadya Wasylko
