# Lynda Benglis artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/lynda-benglis/
Profile generated: 2026-05-24T02:03:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1941-10-25
- Nationality: American
- Movements: Post-Minimalism, Process Art
- Common media: poured latex, wax, polyurethane foam, video, photography, sculpture

## About Lynda Benglis

Lynda Benglis (born October 25, 1941) is an American sculptor, video artist, photographer, and painter whose career has spanned more than five decades. She first gained recognition in the late 1960s for her pioneering poured latex and wax works, which she directed onto gallery floors and walls, breaking with the geometric restraint of Minimalism and helping define Post-Minimalist and Process Art practices. Her practice soon expanded into video, photography, and performance, often addressing themes of the body, gesture, and gender with directness and wit. Benglis studied at Newcomb College in New Orleans and later taught at the University of Rochester. Her work is held in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate in London. She maintains studios in New York, Santa Fe, Greece, and India.

## Common works and media

Collectors and appraisers may encounter Benglis's poured latex and polyurethane floor and wall sculptures, encaustic wax paintings, cast bronze and aluminum knot-like forms, hand-made paper works, glass sculptures, ceramic pieces, video installations (often in small editions), and silver gelatin and chromogenic photographs. Her late-1960s and 1970s poured works are the most frequently cited in auction contexts, while later bronzes and glass pieces appear regularly as well.

## Market and appraisal context

Benglis is well represented at auction, with works appearing across Post-War and Contemporary Art sales worldwide. Her earliest poured latex, wax, and polyurethane floor pieces from the late 1960s and 1970s tend to be the most sought-after by collectors. Later sculptures in bronze, glass, and ceramics, as well as her video editions and photographs, form additional market segments, often at different price levels. Provenance, condition—especially of latex and foam works, which can degrade over time—edition size for multiples and videos, and exhibition history are key factors collectors and appraisers should evaluate. Museum-held or well-documented examples with clear provenance records generally command stronger results at auction.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from museum, library-authority, and scholarly sources with public auction records, auction-house cataloguing, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lot data when those records are available. This page draws on authority files from the Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF, the Library of Congress, the RKD, and collection records from the Museum of Modern Art and Tate.

## Sources

- RKD – Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/103533
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q538986
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/115185353/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500092195
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83174509
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/lynda-benglis-7290
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/471
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynda_Benglis