Lynda Benglis & Foundation for Art & Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) Donate Art in Mumbai, India

Feb. 22, 2011 - PRLog -- The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States image abroad through American art, announced today that renowned American artist Lynda Benglis will install 14 large-scale, permanent works of art at the new U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, India this month. Benglis has donated these works to FAPE in support of the organization’s mission to use art as a tool for cultural diplomacy.

Benglis donated these works to FAPE’s Site-Specific Collections, which uses art to spark cross-cultural dialogue. As part of this project, the U.S. Department of State has asked FAPE to commission site-specific works by American artists for many U.S. embassies in construction abroad. Once an artist has been selected and has agreed to create a work, FAPE works with the embassy architects, the State Department, and the artist, to ensure that the art is sensitively integrated with its surroundings. The artists donate all artworks while FAPE provides funds for their fabrication and installation.

FAPE commissioned Benglis’ work for the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai in 2007. The sculptural forms, which have been fabricated by the Walla Walla Foundry in Washington, will interact with visitors in both the consular waiting area and the atrium. Each shape ranges in size from 36 to 100 inches and includes spheres, eggs and figures meant to encourage meditation. Benglis will install the pieces when she visits Mumbai next week. The consulate, which has been designed by Jerry Briggs of URS Corporation, is slated to open in 2011.

Speaking of her art, Lynda Benglis said, “I first viewed the space of the American Consulate in Mumbai through architectural drawings and, even then, I felt the great enormity of the areas, which I was asked to consider. So, I thought of working with a kind of handwriting that brought the viewer into the space in a meditative way. The density of the surface and the edges of these 14 configurations that are seen on a human scale may suggest islands in nature, eggs, worlds and images for meditation. The work can be read close up or from a distance. You can see the outline of the images, the movement and gesture. It is work that is meant to evoke a sense of intimacy and is a statement of universal spatial organization. It is my loving gift to the people of India.”

U.S. Consul General Paul A. Folmsbee said, "We are honored to have beautiful works by the iconic Lynda Benglis in our new U.S. Consulate General building.  Her deep ties to India exemplify the importance and strength of the people-to-people relationships that have propelled our government partnership to its present heights.  The art will welcome the thousands of Indian citizens that will benefit from the improved services that our larger and new building will allow us to provide.  We are grateful to both FAPE and Lynda for making this happen."

By partnering with American artists, FAPE’s gifts encourage cross-cultural understanding within the diplomatic community and the international public. For more information please see http://www.fapeglobal.org  

About the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies

The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) is the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States image abroad through American art. Founded as a public-private, non-partisan partnership in 1986, FAPE works with the U.S. Department of State to contribute fine art to U.S. embassies around the world. FAPE’s donations include works by more than 208 preeminent American artists placed in more than 140 countries.  Headquartered in Washington, D.C., FAPE has raised more than $56 million in art and monetary contributions to date.

For more information, please visit www.fapeglobal.org  

About Lynda Benglis

Lynda Benglis was born in Louisiana and currently resides in both New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico. A celebrated artist who works with sculpture forms, her work is known to both intersect with and transcend feminist and post minimalism art. She has received numerous awards and accolades including a Guggenheim fellowship, an Australian Art Council Award and two awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited throughout the world in places like the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art all in New York, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. Lynda is currently showing at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.

For her full bio, please see: http://www.cheimread.com/artists/lynda-benglis/?view=bio

Media Contacts

Radha Vij
For FAPE, USA
Gutenberg Communications
+1 2122398741
Radha@gutenbergpr.com

Kumkum Jagadish
For FAPE, India
+91 9930967451
Kumkum@gutenbergpr.com