Betty Tompkins
Women Words (Whistler #1)
2017
Acrylic on paper
11 x 9 inches
http://www.bettytompkins.com
PPOW Gallery, New York
Betty Tompkins, born 1945, lives and works in New York
“In 2002 and 2013, Tompkins circulated the following email: ‘I am considering doing another series of pieces using images of women comprised of words. I would appreciate your help in developing the vocabulary. Please send me a list of words that describe women. They can be affectionate (honey), pejorative (bitch), slang, descriptive, etc. The words don’t have to be in English but I need as accurate a translation as possible. Many, many thanks, Betty Tompkins.’ The response was overwhelming, with over 3,500 words and phrases in seven languages submitted, equally split between men and women. In 2012, Tompkins was invited to create a performance in Vienna where 500 of the words and phrases were read aloud. Inspired by that performance, the artist then set out to create 1,000 individual word paintings, intending the series to be presented en masse once complete. On January 1, 2013, Tompkins created the first painting SLUT (#1).
Throughout WOMEN Words, Tompkins layers stenciled, freehand drawn, and pressed-on text over imagery, which includes lace overlays, gauzy close-ups of the female body, and a sampling of styles from what the artist refers to as the ‘old-boy painting’ network – de Kooning, Fontana, Guston, Morris Louis, Newman, Pollock, and Richter. Derogatory, reductive, and dismissive language such as Venus, Piece of Ass, and The Only Thing That Would Make Her More Beautiful Is My Dick In Her Mouth, seem to reveal that women are often still viewed through the lens of desire or reproach. Is such language the result of love, fear, control, or anger? Tompkins does not offer answers, presenting WOMEN Words in the same straightforward and non-judgmental approach as her renowned Fuck Paintings.”
– Flagartfoundation.org 2016