Carl Andre’s floor pieces from the late 1960s are direct. Flat squares are in contact with flat ground. The way they appear to occupy the space above them is pure magic.
Lynda Benglis’ are instead a kind of intrusion. They creep over, puddle and change the character of the floor, depriving it of its function as a common base for all.
Benglis: Baby Planet 1969
Poured pigmented latex 106 x 24 x 1 1/2in. (269.2 x 61 x 3.8cm) Cheim & Read. Baby Planet is in Michael Darling’s Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1949-78 at the Seattle Art Museum. (Review here.)
Between Andre and Benglis, her floor work is (at present) the most influential. That wheel will turn, but right now, take a bow, Ms. Benglis.
Brent Sommerhauser, now on view at the Greg Kucera Gallery, finds fertile ground between Andre and Benglis. He choses neither, evokes both and cuts the curl of his own wave.
What’s “pure magic” is that Carl Andre got away with murdering Ana Mendieta.
Not convicted and not charged. Plus, presuming for a moment the unprovable, it has nothing to do with Andre’s work. Caravaggio killed a man.
A murderer’s work is worthless whether Caravaggio or Andre.