Betty Tompkins
Women Words (Lucas Cranach The Elder #2), 2019
Acrylic on book page
11.2 x 9 in (28.4 x 22.9 cm)
Women Words (Vermeer #4), 2018
Acrylic on book page
10.4 x 9.4 in (26.4 x 23.9 cm)
Women Words (Raphael #2), 2018
Acrylic on book page
10.4 x 9.1 in (26.4 x 23.1 cm)
Women Words (Degas #2), 2018
Acrylic on book page
10 x 8.4 in (25.4 x 21.3 cm)
b. 1945 Washington, D.C.
Lives and works in New York, NY and Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania
Rendered in softly airbrushed tones, Betty Tompkins’s photorealist paintings of intimate sexual encounters, including exposed genitalia, penetration, and masturbation, derive from pornography. Though her series of nine “Fuck Paintings” were flagged by French customs officials for pornographic content and withheld from display in 1973, they have since received belated acknowledgment and appreciation. Tompkins carefully crops out faces or body parts to excise narrative detail, enlarging the scale to fill large expanses of wall. By emptying her paintings of signifiers of race, class, time, and circumstance, Tompkins presents erotic encounters between two (or sometimes more) powerfully consonant bodies.
Frontrunner editor Shauna Mason talks to two of her artistic icons: Deb Kass and Betty Tompkins; old-school conference-call style. A distinction long, long overdue: Kass and Tompkins command the cover feature of FRONTRUNNER’s Fall 2020 First Anniversary Issue.
Artist Betty Tompkins, whose work frequently explores physical intimacy through a feminist lens, told ARTnews that she has been kicked off Instagram for sharing an image of her Fuck Painting #1 (1969), which is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The work is the first in a series of photorealistic paintings she made of sex, many of which feature genitalia.
Inspired by her husband’s porn stash, the artist’s explicit work horrified galleries and customs officials. Now the world can’t get enough.
by David Pagel
If you’ve even been to a dinner party with great food and even better conversation, you’ll know what it’s like to visit “Flaming June VII: Flaming Creatures” at Gavlak in Los Angeles. The exhibition of 34 pieces by 27 artists mixes art of all shapes and stripes to form a freewheeling feast. Lively back-and-forths take on lives of their own as they inspire, challenge and satisfy — often deeply and dramatically.
Friday, October 14
7 - 9 pm
Feminist Friday is a casual but directed conversation about contemporary issues related to feminism. This intersectional conversation is open to any and all community members. The purpose of Feminist Friday is to create a safe environment in which people can share questions, concerns, resources, and experiences pertaining to feminism. The ‘unofficial’ motto of Feminist Friday is “Cocktails, Conversation, and Consciousness-raising”.
Two thick brown, purple, and green globs of oil paint are dolloped onto the top half of a small white canvas—the word “erotic” is outlined in red below. Next to it are similarly sized paintings emblazoned with the words “seiki” (“genitals” in Japanese), “weich” (“soft” in German) and “fanny flange” (British slang for “clitoris”), each painted with a different treatment.
There’s plenty of porn in Betty Tompkins’ solo exhibition, which is newly open at Gavlak’s Los Angeles gallery. But that’s the least provocative part of it.
Since the 1970s, New York artist Betty Tompkins has created frank, unvarnished paintings and drawings of female genitalia and explicit sex acts. These, on view at Gavlak Gallery with paintings of words used to describe women, form a potent examination of our culture’s attitudes toward women and sex.
SELECTED SOLO SHOWS
2019 Fuck Paintings, Etc., J Hammond Projects, London, UK
2017 VI Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Virgin, PPOW, New York, NY
Small, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY
Sex Works / WOMEN Words, Phrases, and Stories, GAVLAK, Palm Beach, FL
2016 Sex Works / WOMEN Words, Phrases, and Stories, GAVLAK, Los Angeles, CA
Viewing Room, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY
WOMEN Words, Phrases, and Stories: 1000 Paintings by Betty Tompkins, FLAG Art
Foundation, New York, NY
2015 REAL ERSATZ, Foundation University Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Art Basel Feature, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen (Brussels), Basel, Switzerland
2013 Paintings and Works on Paper 1972 - 2013, GAVLAK, Palm Beach, FL
Home Alone 2, New York, NY (with Dadamanio)
Woman Words, Dinter Fine Art Online, New York, NY
2012 Fuck Paintings, Galerie Rodolph Janssen, Brussels
2011 Sex Works, Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich, Switzerland
2009 New Work, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Fuck Paintings and Drawings 1973 - 2007, Lawrimore Project, Seattle, WA
2007 Sex Works, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Fuck Paintings and Drawings, Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich, Switzerland
2005 New Paintings and Drawings, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Fuck Paintings 1969 - 1974, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 Kunstraum Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria (fourthcoming)
Für Barbara, curated by Leo Koenig, Hall Art Foundation, Dernberg, Germany
Flaming June VII: Flaming Creatures, GAVLAK, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Something Possible Everywhere: Pier 34, NYC 1983-84, 205 Hudson Gallery, New York, NY
The Female Gaze, Part Two: Women Look at Men, Cheim & Read, New York, NY
Smile!, Shin Gallery, New York, NY
Black Sheep Feminism, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX
2015 Sight For Sore Eyes, with Lucas Jardin, Artsy at Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
Word by Word, curated by Francesco Bonami, Luxembourg & Dayan, London, UK
Viewer Discretion…Children of Bataille, curated by Kathleen Cullen, Stux Haller Gallery, New York, NY
Verganza (I don’t want to be friends), organized by Gea Polity, Milan, Italy
Lust, HVCCA, Peeksil, New York, NY
Fertility, presented by Jane Kim, 33 Orchard, New York, NY
The Shell (Landscapes, Portaits & Shapes) a show by Eric Troncy, Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France
Eureka! curated by Kendell Geers, Galerist, New York, NY
Ten Year Anniversary, GAVLAK, Los Angeles, CA and Palm Beach, FL
2014 Rear Window Treatment, Louis B. James, New York, NY
A Drawing Show, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY
CORPUS, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
A Chromatic Loss, curated by Jeffrey Uslip, Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY
Selections from the Sara M. & Michelle Vance Waddell Collection, Art Academy of Cincinatti, OH
2013 Independents, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen
A Few of My Favorite Things, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Skin Trade, PPOW, New York, NY
Page 179, Artforum, September 2013, Brennan & Griffin, New York , NY
She, Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York, NY
The origin of the world/the force of the source/the cause of the vigor,
Samson Projects, Boston, MA
Sunsets and Pussy, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
DSM-V, The Future Moynihan Station, New York, NY
Jew York, Untitled, New York, NY
Sex Money and Power, Maison Particuliere, Brussels, Belgium
2012 In The Pink, Joe Sheftel Gallery, New York, NY
Dark Garnaal, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen; Villa - Knokke, Knokke - Heist, Belgium
ff Temporary Autonomous Zone, Lisa Ruter Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Screw You, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York , NY
2011 No government No cry, a project by Kendell Geers, CIAP Actuele Kunst, Hasselt, Belgium
Invitation to the Voyage, Algus Greenspon, New York, NY
Grisaille, Luxembourg and Dayan, New York, NY
2010 Lust and Vice: The Seven Deadly Sins From Dürer to Naumann,
Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
Visible Vagina, Francis Naumann Gallery, New York, NY
Consider the Oyster, James Graham and Sons, New York , NY
2009 elles@centrepompidou, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Naked! Size Matters, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY
Revolver, COCO, Vienna, Austria
The Line Is A Lonely Hunter - Drawings in New Jerseyy, New Jersey,
2008 How To Cook A Wolf: Part 1, Dinter Fine Art, New York, NY
2007 La Plaissir au Dessin, Musee de Beaux Arts, Lyon, France
Handsome Young Doctor, Cubitt Gallery, London, England
Into Position, Baurnmarkt, Vienna, Austria
2006 Exquisite Corpse - Cadavre Exquis, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY
Uncertain States of America, Serpentine Gallery, London, England and traveling
2005 La Beauté de L'Enfer, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2004 [Untitled/Nudes], Printed Matter, New York, NY
Nouvelles Acquisitions, Ouevres Contemporaines, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2003 It Happened Tomorrow, Bienniale de Lyon, Lyon, France
PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS
Weir Farm National Historic Site / National Park Service, Wilton, CT
CowParade, New York City/Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY
Islip Art Museum, East Islip, New York, NY
SELECTED PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
SELECTED PRESS
2017 Pagel, David. “No wallflowers here: Sparks fly when art mingles on the walls of 'Flaming
June VII',” Los Angeles Times, June 27.
