Installation view, photo by Lenbachhaus
The private is political – that was the mantra of the second wave of feminist movements in the late 60s. And yet in 1974 when artist Lea Lublin (1929 – 1999) presented her own version of it with “Mon Fils”(My son) at the Parisian Salon de Mai held in Musée d’Art Moderne, she was swiftly denounced for being too domestic. The installation depicted the artist interacting with her baby and despite the criticism from the male-dominated establishment of the time, it paved Lublin’s way for her deconstruction of art historical imagery in France.
The Lea Lublin’s retrospective at Lenbachhaus in Munich, presents an artist that understood and knew how to deal with the cultural boundaries in which she navigated as a Polish-born French-Argentine artist. The exhibition features photographs, drawings, wall installations, and videos, that follow Lubin’s abandonment of painting in favour of environments and actions, and the use of dialogue as an art form.
R.S.I. – Dürer, Del Sarto, Parmigianino, 1983, Acrylic paint, gelatin silver print, ink, and paper on canvas and board 350 x 600 cm, Estate of the artist, photo by: Alain Le Nouail / © Le Quartier, Quimper 1995
Installation view, photo by: Lenbachhaus, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, München
Lublin’s celebration of the female experience was also particular in the sense that it simultaneously demonstrated her perception of the male body and of a male-centric art world. Yet, Lublin’s perspective wasn’t a polarising one. Instead she sought to harmonise the sexes. And by turning her environmental works into invitations to gather around one theme – art – Lublin offered her solution to the aggression in gender politics.
From 1974 to 1979, Lublin went on tour with her project “Interrogations sur l’art. Discours sur l’art”: filming and photographing the reactions from the people on the streets of Antwerp, Neuenkirchen and Naples. Her aim with this long project was to confront the individuals with their own idea (or fantasy) of what art or an artist should be. Here again, her personal transgression of nationalities articulated itself by the means of language: Lublin was interested in listening to people express themselves in a variety of vernaculars.
“Fluvio Subtunal”, 1969, Environment, Santa Fé (Argentina), photo by: Humberto Rivas, Barcelona
Dissolution dans l’eau. Pont Marie, 17 heures, Performance, Paris, March 11, 1978, photo: anonymous, Courtesy Estate of the artist/ Collection Nicolas Lublin
Lublin’s work also signals the possibility of liberation through artistic performativity, as exemplified by the reconstruction of “Fluvio Subtunal” which highlights participation as a way of caring for others. The different zones of this installation look like a cross between a playground and a ruin, in which the artist experimented with industrial and natural materials for a collective performance. However, performativity is only one part of Lublin’s oeuvre. The artist, who remains largely unknown outside France, made the point of revisiting modernism with a fresher and playful attitude and with that she also succeeded in breaking down barriers between art and life.
Text by Maria Inés Plaza Lazo
“Lea Lublin – Retrospective” is on show at Lenbachhaus in Munich until 13 September 2015