Art Review Marilyn Minter "
by Stephanie Del Carpio MFA 2017
Marilyn Minter’s first
retrospective exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum is so much more than skin deep
bling. It reflects the obsession with western ideals of beauty, the culture of
fashion, notions of femininity and the female body. Beginning with intimate and
haunting photographs of her mother, once a southern belle, Minter eerily
captures a maniacal fixation with one’s reflection and the inevitable ravage of
time on the human body. The woman in the photos is smeared in layers of makeup
and with a vacant stare she reminds us that we may all be sharing those
feelings someday, as we gaze at our aging selves in the mirror.
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| Coral Ridge Towers (Mom in Negligee), 1969 |
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| Coral Ridge Towers (Mom making up), 1969 |
The large scale paintings Little
Girls and Big Girls focus on the female body and the male gaze. Big
Girls depicts the infamous 1957 photo of Italian actress Sophia Loren and
American actress Jayne Mansfield, in which Mansfield’s bosom is precariously
encased by a plunging neckline. Both actresses were considered the epitome of
beauty in the 1950s and 1960s. They were women deemed worthy of worship,
envy, and desire. In Little Girls, Minter is showing us the symbolic
version of these ladies as children, in all their youth and innocence; unaware
of their future objectification.
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| Big Girls, enamel on canvas, 1986 |
In later works, such as Clip
and Dirty Heel, Minter confronts her audience with massive depictions of
beautification tools, magnified for greater effect. Throughout, there are also
insights into the artist’s creative process. Bisecting the galleries, there is
a narrow hallway with a large vitrine, showing old sketches, preliminary
studies, and collaged photo references for future works.
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| Vitrines with sketches and studies |
In the age before Photoshop, these give us a glimpse into the planning and production of her
large scale close-ups. Hanging nearby is a collection of photos commissioned
by Playboy magazine that depict graphic close ups of pubic hair being groomed.
These images are candid shots of a woman’s private rituals exposed for all to
see. Minter aims to strip the veil of secrecy to the process of self-grooming -
the raw reality of the things we usually conceal.
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| Plush, inkjet prints |
The monumental Blue Poles,
reveals unruly and unplucked brow hairs, loud freckles and a glaring
blemish, alongside a pair of eyelids with uneven metallic and glamorous
eyeshadow.
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| Blue Poles, enamel on metal |
The sky-high heel comes alive in
the video Smash. As you walk into the final viewing room, you are
greeted by a closeup video of a pair of feet uncomfortably squeezed into
bejeweled open-toe high heel shoes. They are metallic silver and stomp into
metallic liquid. They eventually shatter a pane of glass, symbolically the same
glass that separates the audience from the action. As they turn, a loose string
of crystal embellishments swing around and smack against the foot. Overgrown
painted toenails decorate toes that appear to be in utmost pain. The expression
“suffer for fashion” comes to mind, and Minter is throwing it back at all our
faces. We in the audience are guilty as charged - for not only feeding into the
myth, but glorifying and luxuriating in it.
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| Smash, video still |
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