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The Arts Intel Report

Hannah Wilke: Art for Life's Sake

June 4, 2021 – Jan 16, 2022
3716 Washington Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63108, United States

“I have always used my art to have life around me,” said the American artist Hannah Wilke. “Art is for life’s sake.” Wilke emerged on the art scene in the 1960s and was quickly noticed. Her provocative multidisciplinary work—sculpture, photography, video, and works on paper—were feminist critiques that questioned norms of gender and sexuality. Wilke glamorized vulvas, created pastel-hued paintings of phalluses, and performed nude. Though her death at age 53, in 1993, was untimely, 20 years on her art feels eerily contemporary. In a major presentation, 120 works from the 60s to the 90s are testament to Wilke’s fearlessness and versatility. —E.C.

Hannah Wilke with “Ponder-r-rosa 4,” 1975 © 2021 Scharlatt Family, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles/licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.