{"id":41432,"date":"2016-12-06T14:25:06","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T13:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=41432"},"modified":"2016-12-06T14:25:06","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T13:25:06","slug":"marilyn-minter-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Marilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wangechi Left: “Wangechi Gold 4”, 2009, C-Print, 152 x 101 cm, courtesy the artist, Salon 94, New York and Regen Projects, LA. Right: Marilyn Minter by Chris Schoonover<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“I\u2019m an activist. I make pictures of what I think the world looks like”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Marilyn Minter<\/a> is in the midst of working on a large-scale canvas at her studio in New York\u2019s Garment District when we first speak. It is midday, and in spite of our temperamental phone connection, the din of house and conversations between Minter\u2019s team of six assistants permeates the line. \u201cAs you can probably tell, there\u2019s a real good energy going on here,\u201d she says. \u201cWe listen to music all the time, mostly Brooklyn-based DJs that play instrumental tracks. It\u2019s a good stimulus for the work. We start later on in the day, because I\u2019ve never been a morning person. I never will be \u2013 I mean, it\u2019s too late now, right?\u201d
\nIt\u2019s hard to believe that Minter turned 67 this year. After four decades of delivering vivid, alluringly debased photographs, paintings and short films, she\u2019s as devoted to expanding her output as ever. \u201cMy ideas stem from the culture that I live in,\u201d she says. \u201cI travel a lot, I read, I listen to Podcasts, I surf the net all the time. I also pay attention to what is going on politically, I\u2019m an activist. I make pictures of what I think the world looks like, and I always have done.\u201d
\nMinter, who was born in Louisiana and raised in Florida, insists that she has always been compelled to make art. \u201cIt\u2019s instinctive for me,\u201d she says, her voice deepening in tone. \u201cI started drawing at five years old. I could get by in school, but all I ever wanted to do was draw,\u201d she says. It\u2019s fair to say that her formative years were less than idyllic. In fact, throughout her career Minter has openly disclosed the trappings of growing up with a single mother who battled a turbulent drug addiction. \u201cShe was at one time a really beautiful woman, and she was very conscious of the way she looked,\u201d Minter told Lenny magazine earlier this year. \u201cShe worked on herself all the time, but it was always off because she pulled out her hair so she had to wear wigs; she had acrylic nails, but she didn\u2019t take care of them so fungus would grow underneath them.\u201d
\n <\/p>\n

\"Orange “Orange Crush”, 2009, enamel on metal, 274 x 457 cm, private collection<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Everything isn\u2019t black and white, there are limits on either side. I want a picture to have multiple reads.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, notions of flawed beauty have always populated the artist\u2019s oeuvre, from her 1969 photographic series “Coral Ridge Towers”, which captures her mother performing mundane beauty rituals, to her 2001 enamel on metal paintings and , which display a perfect pedicure on dirty feet, lustrous polish framed by the grimy crevices of toe-nails, Minter\u2019s work also seemingly relishes paradox, at once celebrating pleasure, desire and the allure of high fashion, while simultaneously exposing its pitfalls. It glorifies trivial objects \u2013 aluminium foil, paper curls, washed-up remnants of food at the base of a kitchen sink \u2013 elevating the everyday into something extraordinary. \u201cI\u2019m not convinced that everything is in black and white. I know there are limits on either side of the scale, but I like working with two opposing ideas at the same time,\u201d she reveals. \u201cI want a picture to have multiple reads.\u201d
\nRight now, Minter is gearing up for two pivotal exhibitions. The first will debut some new paintings \u201cabout frost and steam\u201d at Salon 94 in New York in October. While the second will stage her first retrospective “Pretty\/Dirty”, which has travelled from the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston to the Orange County Museum of Art, before finally hitting New York\u2019s esteemed Brooklyn Museum<\/a> in November. The show will display 45 of her seminal works from the 30 years, substantiating her influence on contemporary art. It is a significant moment for Minter, who only began receiving the critical acclaim a decade or so ago \u2013 as is, regrettably, so often the case for women artists. \u201cSuccess came in later life for me. The art world loves young bad boys and old ladies,\u201d she says with a dry, hearty laugh. \u201cCertainly the work I did early on is far more appreciated now.\u201d
\nFittingly, the Brooklyn Museum is executing a larger selection of Minter\u2019s paintings from the 1970s than CAMH and OCMA, which has pleased her immensely. \u201cI love my early work. I think those paintings [from the 70s] are really smart,\u201d she says. \u201cI was just making black and white paintings of photographs, keeping them on the raw canvas.\u201d
\n <\/p>\n

\"100 “100 Food Porn #9”, 1989\u201390, enamel on metal, 61 x 76.2 cm, Hort Family Collection<\/p>\n

 
\nA lesser-known but equally captivating chapter in her career features in the exhibition courtesy of her Pop Art-inspired paintings from the mid- 1980s, which provide a critical look at representations of the female body and celebrity. One such work, Big Girls from 1988 presents a dot-screened collage of a photograph of vivacious screen sirens Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren, their buxom bodies and idolised faces obscured by an opposing image of two innocent young girls, marking the plight between adolescence and sexual awakening. And the heady dose of provocation that pervades her infamous \u2018porno paintings\u2019 from the early Nineties are likely to spark a debate among visitors, just as they did when they were first unleashed, causing outrage amongst feminists who saw the visceral, close-up crops of sexual acts as abusive to the women at the mercy of the porn industry. (Minter\u2019s apparent intention was in fact to define the conventions of art that a modern woman could create \u2013 after all, what was so wrong about expressing eroticism and desire?) \u201cIt is still so curious to me,\u201d she recalls of the backlash. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to put down the porn industry, when in fact we wouldn\u2019t even have the Internet without porn! Like I said, it gives so many people pleasure. It seems to me that this should be something that should be examined by artists. It\u2019s the same with fashion, which is often dismissed by the art world as being trivial and shallow, when it\u2019s this giant engine of culture and a major business.\u201d She pauses, before pointing out that within both of these gargantuan industries, the common denominator is women.
\nThough Minter dismisses being influenced by fashion per se, she cites the glamour of the genre \u2013 whether channeled through the filter of punk, gothic romance or even classic elegance \u2013 as being a major source of inspiration. \u201cI continue to be interested in all subject matter that\u2019s considered shallow or debased, that the world deems \u2018not important\u2019 or unable to give credence too.\u201d A pertinent example of this sentiment is expressed in 2006\u2019s Armpit, which showcases the sweating, surface of a woman\u2019s underarm, outstretched by two fingers manicured in a neon green nail polish.
\nWhen she\u2019s not painstakingly applying layers of enamel to one of her pieces (which, she confides, \u201ctake a good year or so to complete\u201d), advocating women\u2019s reproductive rights, or teaching at the School of Visual Arts in New York, she enjoys nothing better than a good biography. \u201cI\u2019m a voracious reader,\u201d she says. At the moment, she\u2019s infatuated by a study of the pioneering American photographer Diane Arbus. \u201cYes, and [photographer] Lee Miller\u2019s biography is going to blow your mind too! But I like to read about all kinds of artists, because it\u2019s the same story, time and again, \u201c she explains. \u201cIt made me realise that it\u2019s always hard to realise your individual vision. But when you get so much pleasure out of it then it\u2019s not an option \u2013 it\u2019s a calling. It\u2019s my calling.\u201d
\n <\/p>\n

\"Torrent, Left: “Torrent”, 2013, enamel on metal, 243 x 152 cm, private collection, Palm Beach, Florida. Right: “Clip”, 2005, enamel on metal, 76 x 61 cm, collection of Gregory R. Miller and Michael Wiener, New York<\/p>\n

 
\nTaken from SLEEK 52<\/a><\/strong> \n 
\n“Pretty\/Dirty<\/a>” by Marilyn Minter is on display at the Brooklyn Museum until 2 April 2017<\/strong> \n 
\n 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After forty years in the business, photographer Marilyn Minter is still in mint condition<\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":41445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[38,39,6846,906,6847,6848,6301,124,6849,65,1429,6850,6851,6485],"class_list":["post-41432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-big-girls","tag-brooklyn-museum","tag-contemporary-arts-museum-houston","tag-coral-ridge-towers","tag-marilyn-minter","tag-new-york","tag-orange-county-museum-of-art","tag-photographer","tag-pop-art","tag-prettydirty","tag-school-of-visual-arts","tag-usa"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nMarilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex in Brooklyn Museum Retrospective<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After forty years in the business, photographer Marilyn Minter is still in mint condition\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex in Brooklyn Museum Retrospective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After forty years in the business, photographer Marilyn Minter is still in mint condition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-06T13:25:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Natalie Rigg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. This creativity manifests itself in SLEEK\u2019s quarterly print publication, digital and social media channels.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/\",\"name\":\"Marilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex in Brooklyn Museum Retrospective\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-06T13:25:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-06T13:25:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f3152acf047dfc3b86f6b9e0612d8097\"},\"description\":\"After forty years in the business, photographer Marilyn Minter is still in mint condition\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Marilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f3152acf047dfc3b86f6b9e0612d8097\",\"name\":\"Natalie Rigg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a02186e16d823ff94b8dad4a1e2366168521edbb6963cb0d40fbd6f2e73a43?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a02186e16d823ff94b8dad4a1e2366168521edbb6963cb0d40fbd6f2e73a43?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Natalie Rigg\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/natalie-rigg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Marilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex in Brooklyn Museum Retrospective","description":"After forty years in the business, photographer Marilyn Minter is still in mint condition","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Marilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex in Brooklyn Museum Retrospective","og_description":"After forty years in the business, photographer Marilyn Minter is still in mint condition","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/","og_site_name":"Sleek Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/","article_published_time":"2016-12-06T13:25:06+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sleekmag","twitter_site":"@sleekmag","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"Natalie Rigg","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"7\u00a0Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/","name":"Schlankes Magazin","description":"Sleek ist Deutschlands f\u00fchrendes unabh\u00e4ngiges Medienhaus\/Marke f\u00fcr Kreativit\u00e4t und Innovation mit Sitz in Berlin, der kreativen Hauptstadt der Welt. Diese Kreativit\u00e4t manifestiert sich in der viertelj\u00e4hrlich erscheinenden Print-Publikation, den digitalen und Social-Media-Kan\u00e4len von SLEEK.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/","name":"Marilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex in Brooklyn Museum Retrospective","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-12-06T13:25:06+00:00","dateModified":"2016-12-06T13:25:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f3152acf047dfc3b86f6b9e0612d8097"},"description":"After forty years in the business, photographer Marilyn Minter is still in mint condition","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/marilyn-minter-art\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Marilyn Minter Proves She Can Still Provoke and Perplex"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f3152acf047dfc3b86f6b9e0612d8097","name":"Natalie Rigg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a02186e16d823ff94b8dad4a1e2366168521edbb6963cb0d40fbd6f2e73a43?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a02186e16d823ff94b8dad4a1e2366168521edbb6963cb0d40fbd6f2e73a43?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Natalie Rigg"},"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/natalie-rigg\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}