Kim Dingle
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Kim Dingle (1951-) is a Los Angeles based contemporary artist working in paint, sculpture and installation.
Dingle grew up in Pomona, California. In 1988 she earned a BFA from Cal State Los Angeles and in 1990, an MFA from Claremont Graduate School.
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[edit] Overview
Kim Dingle's work characteristically depicts stout young girls dressed in patent-leather maryjanes and frilly party dresses that are involved in stereotypically masculine acts full of aggression and violence. Her heroines punch, hack, kick, mutilate, gnaw and vomit their way through a sacchrine world without mussing a curl on their heads or ruffling an embelishment on their frocks. The brutality and ferocity that they demonstrate is witty, provocative and often shocking. As the David Winton Bell Gallery states, "her art illuminates the role that race, gender, stereotype and myth play in defining identity." [1]
The characters that act across Dingle’s picture plane make no apologies for their raucaus, subversive behavior. The girls spit on restrictive notions like the “good girl” and plot a murderous revenge on their oppressors. Not a teddy bear, lollipop, or cute little puppy is spared. Not only does the artist provide a strong post-Feminist critique of acceptable female behavior, the work poignantly rejects Rousseau’s theory on childhood innocence and the notion that the child emerges from the womb a completely blank slate. As critic Ana Honigman states, “for Dingle’s girls strength does not lie in the ability to get grown-ups or men to protect them, but in their ability to be strong for themselves. [2]
The challenging critique in Dingle's work is further strengthened by her highly skilled hand and adept aesthetic sensibilities. Her palette seems derived from those well known childhood vices, chocolate, butterscotch, hot fudge and maple syrup. The brushwork of her paintings is as sensuous and visceral as the scenes they conjure.
[edit] Series of Works
It is not surprising that Kim Dingle's earliest works explore the figure, identity and gender stereotypes. In her first solo exhibition, “Portraits from the Dingle Library,” Dingle combined images of her mother, Cram with portraits of iconic figures like George Washington, Queen Elizabeth and George Foreman. Her inspiration for these works began with her mother’s belief that she is related to both George Washington and Queen Elizabeth. [3] These early paintings provide an intriguing preview of Dingle’s irreverent humor and interest in empowered female figures.
Shortly after the Cram portrait series, Kim Dingle began her quintessential critique of girlhood innocence with the character, Priss. Dingle’s niece Wadow, who exhibited very violent behavior as a result of prenatal brain damage, was a major source of inspiration for the Priss character. [4]
Dingle often inserts Priss and her cohorts, the Wild Girls, into celebrated historic scenes. These images reclaim famous American myths like George Washington and the cherry tree for her fleshy heroines and question the semiotics of patriotism. For example, in Untitled (Girls with the dresspole), 1998 Dingle’s leading ladies raise a dresspole in a pose reminiscent of the famous photograph of soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima. The Wild Girl series importantly reminds viewers of the violence so thoroughly embedded in American history. It is also states a wry connection to the notorious band of western outlaws, the wild bunch.
The Priss works led to another series of work for Dingle, this time employing the characters Fatty and Fudge. Fatty, a white girl and Fudge, a black girl, partner up to enact their diabolic whims. Their exploits and frustrations often turn on themselves, and Fatty and Fudge inevitable resort to attacking each other. In the “Never in School” series, Dingle introduced anonymous school mates, whom Fatty and Fudge blissfully dominate in the absence of adults or boys.
[edit] Honors and Accolades
Kim Dingle was a participant in the 2000 Whitney Biennial.
Dingle's works are included in the collections of MOCA LA, the LA County Museum of Art, MOCA San Diego, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, the Norton Family Foundation among others. Kim Dingle’s work is well considered in numerous art publications, like Art in America, Arts Magazine, Art Issues, Artscene, Frieze and Artforum.
[edit] Notes
- David Winton Bell Gallery announcement of Dingle exhibition
- Frieze, May 2001, pp. 100-101
- David Winton Bell Gallery announcement of Dingle exhibition
- David Winton Bell Gallery announcement of Dingle exhibition
[edit] Links
New York representative, Sperone Westwater [5]
Dingle's work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles [6]
