A revelatory, long-overdue survey of the bold and explicit feminist
painting of Betty Tompkins, from the late 1960s to the present
This first monographic work on the New York-based feminist painter Betty
Tompkins (born 1945) presents around 50 paintings and drawings made
during her career. Tompkins is best known for her large-format Fuck
Paintings, a series launched in 1969 depicting close-up sex, the source
images of which are taken from pornographic magazines. The series is
famous for having been censored many times.
In this and other series, such as the Cunt Paintings and Pussy
Paintings, Tompkins uses a cold and restricted palette of black, white
and gray for the pornographic images that she appropriates.
Stylistically close to photorealism, the images are cropped and produced
with an airbrush on pastel backgrounds. Sometimes the artist covers up
the image with misogynistic texts.
Although her paintings were rarely shown, due to their explicit content,
Tompkins has influenced a younger generation. Since the 1970s, she has
tirelessly questioned what determines the codes of representation of
female bodies. This work thus takes on a new dimension within the
framework of the recent #MeToo movement.
In this essential volume, collages and drawings reveal Tompkins' work
processes, highlighting her grid work, a major synthesis of minimalism
and formalism. Among the works on paper, the 2014 Photo Drawings
series is unveiled here for the first time.
