Music like Dildo

Lynda Benglis (born October 25, 1941 in Lake Charles, Louisiana) is an American sculptor and visual artist known especially for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. She currently lives between New York City; Santa Fe; Kastelorizo, Greece; and Ahmedabad, India.

Benglis was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana on October 25, 1941. She is Greek-American. Growing up her father Michael ran a building-materials business. Her mother was from Mississippi and was a preacher's daughter. She is the eldest of five children. She earned a BFA in 1964 from Newcomb College in New Orleans, which was then the women's college of Tulane University. Following graduation, she was briefly married to the art historian Michael Kempan and taught third grade at Jefferson Parish, in Louisiana. In 1964 Benglis moved to New York. In New York, she studied painting at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. There she met the Scottish painter Gordon Hart, whom was briefly to be her second husband. Benglis later stated that she married Hart to help him avoid the draft. She also took a job as an assistant to Klaus Kertess at the Bykert Gallery before moving on to work at the Paula Cooper Gallery.