Interview magazine recently published a conversation between the artists Lynda Benglis and John Baldessari. Benglis calls out Baldessari on a nude portrait he made of his wife, which she refers to as “one of the strongest works” he’s made, though he admits it also upset her and got her thinking about the male gaze. She later claims this may have inspired her iconic advertisement in the November 1974 issue of Artforum magazine, which served to promote an upcoming Benglis show at Paula Cooper gallery in New York and featured the artist nude, except for a pair of sunglasses, and holding an enormous dildo. Here she is describing her old loft on Baxter Street:
I had one shower and one toilet, and it was all exposed. Paula Cooper spent the night there once. I had the dildo from the Artforum piece hanging in the shower. When Paula heard some people up on the roof, she said she thought she could grab the dildo and crack them over the head with it! I got that dildo up on 42nd Street. I invited Robert Morris to come with me, but he didn’t want to.
Always keep a dildo handy in case of potential home invasions, am I right? No?
Anyway, the two go over lots of great stuff. Read the whole interview here.