LINDER
DANGER CAME SMILING
Linder’s Principle of Totality (Version 1), 2012. Photograph: Courtesy of the artist; Modern Art, London; Blum, LA,Tokyo, New York; Andrehn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Paris and dependance, Brussels
WHAT? Linder: Danger Came Smiling
WHERE? Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
WHEN? Now until 5th May
WHY GO: To feel dazed and confused. Linder Sterling, known professionally as Linder, even at the age of 70 is a maverick, continually challenging perceptions through her phenomenal photomontages. She wields her scalpel like a paintbrush.
Truly a multimedia artist, Linder is also a performer, was in a punk band but most importantly is an engagingly intelligent feminist at heart. She switched from photography to creating photo collages that were radical and provocative at the beginning of her 50-year long career.
Inspired by Germaine Greer’s seminal book, The Female Eunuch, she was determined to portray women that felt exploited through domestic violence and male magazines hence the exhibition is full of challenging images that include nudity and many, quite frankly, border-line pornographic postures.
Not a show for the kids at half term, but definitely a show for liberal art lovers who appreciate hard hitting images. This slightly surreal retrospective shows how Linder’s work has progressed from pasting Playboy magazine cuttings into raunchy collages to creating photomontages of mythical goddesses like Artemis surrounded in flowers for the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth, all artfully elegant!
IN THE KNOW See two exhibitions for the price of one. Pop next door and discover another dynamic female artist. Running concurrently, American artist Mickalene Thomas sensationally represents leading Black women through her mixed media paintings and collage compositions embellished with shiny rhinestones and powerful pattern plays.