Linder Sterling

{{Infobox artist

| name = Linder

| image = File:Linder Sterling Exhibit Debuts at the Goss-Michael Foundation (8117612432).jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Linder Sterling in 2012

| birth_name = Linda Mulvey{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/sep/02/linder-sterling-photomontage|title=Linder, the artist with the hex factor|author=Dillon, Brian|website=The Guardian|date=1 September 2011|access-date=20 June 2021}}

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1954}}

| birth_place = Liverpool, United Kingdom

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = British

| education = Manchester Polytechnic

| field = Photography

| training =

| movement =

| works =

| patrons =

| awards =

| spouse =

| partner =

}}

Linder Sterling (born 1954, Liverpool{{cite book |last1=Phaidon |title=Great women artists |date=2019 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=978-0714878775 |page=247}}), commonly known as Linder, is a British artist known for her photography, radical feminist photomontage and confrontational performance art. She was also the former frontwoman of Manchester-based post-punk group Ludus.{{Cite web|date=2020-01-18|title=How Linder went from Orgasm Addict to Chatsworth House|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/18/linder-post-punk-artist-retrospective-at-kettles-yard|access-date=2021-03-24|website=The Guardian|language=en}} In 2017, Sterling was honoured with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award.

For her solo shows at the Hepworth Wakefield and Tate St Ives in 2013, Sterling collaborated with choreographer Kenneth Tindall of Northern Ballet for a performance piece, The Ultimate Form (2013), inspired by the artist's research into the work of Barbara Hepworth.{{cite web|url=https://hepworthwakefield.org/whats-on/linder/ |title=Linder 16 Feb – 12 May 2013|website=hepworthwakefield.org |access-date=20 February 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/exhibition/tate-st-ives-summer-2013/tate-st-ives-summer-2013-linder |title=Tate St Ives Summer 2013: Linder |access-date=20 February 2019 |website=tate.org.uk}}

Recent solo exhibitions include Nottingham Contemporary, Kestnergesellschaft, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris,{{Cite web|title=Linder|url=https://www.mam.paris.fr/fr/expositions/exposition-linder|access-date=2021-03-24|website=Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris|language=fr}} and Museum of Modern Art PS1, and Sterling's work has been included in group exhibitions at Tate Modern, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Tate Britain, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.{{Cite web|title=Linder|url=https://modernart.net/artists/linder|access-date=2021-03-24|website=Modern Art|language=en}}

Early life and education

Sterling was born in Liverpool to Jean and Thomas Mulvey. She was educated at Upholland Grammar School and studied Graphic Design in Manchester School of Art at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) from 1974 to 1977.

Work

Sterling's photomontage work was influenced by the punk rock movement; the punk cut-and-paste sensibility provided a vehicle to explore rebellion, gender, commodity critique, and the body. Her collage work was also influenced by the art historical Dadaist heritage, in particular the work of the German artist Hannah Hoch).{{cite web |last1=Takac |first1=Balasz |title=Kettle's Yard Goes Linder |url=https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/linder-exhibition-kettles-yard |website=Widewalls |access-date=9 April 2022}} She cites Dawn Adès' 1976 'Photomontage' as a major influence.

="Orgasm Addict" cover=

In one of her early works, possibly her best known, the cover art for the 1977 single release of "Orgasm Addict" by the punk band Buzzcocks,{{Cite book |last1=Lowey |first1=Ian |last2=Prince |first2=Suzy |year=2014 |title=The Graphic Art of the Underground: A Countercultural History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DYbhAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |location=London; New York |publisher=Bloomsbury |page=118 |isbn=9781472573551 }} the collage depicts a naked woman with an iron for a head and grinning mouths instead of nipples. Linder has instructed her son to not release the identity of the woman whose picture she used for the collage until after her death. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/feb/10/i-was-always-obsessed-with-death-how-linder-turned-pornography-and-trauma-into-art

"At this point, men's magazines were either DIY, cars or porn. Women's magazines were fashion or domestic stuff. So, guess the common denominator – the female body. I took the female form from both sets of magazines and made these peculiar jigsaws highlighting these various cultural monstrosities that I felt there were at the time."{{cite web|url=http://shotbybothsides.com/q_100a.htm |title=Orgasm Addict – United Artists 1977 – Malcolm Garrett/Collage: Linder Sterling |work=Best 100 Record Covers |last=Wilkinson |first=Roy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061019193228/http://shotbybothsides.com/q_100a.htm |archive-date=19 October 2006 |url-status=usurped}}

Rolling Stone described Sterling's work as "subversive photomontages which splice images from consumer culture and glossy glamour magazines".{{Cite web |last=Porter |first=Sophie |date=2023-12-11 |title=Linder Sterling: 'Super women are coming into their own' |url=https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/news/linder-sterling-super-women-are-coming-into-their-own-35653/ |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=Rolling Stone UK |language=en-GB}}

Exhibitions

Sterling's work has been the subject of numerous international solo exhibitions, including those at the Tate Museum St. Ives, Nottingham Contemporary,{{cite web |title=House of Fame Convened by Linder |url=https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/whats-on/the-house-of-fame-convened-by-linder/ |website=Nottingham Contemporary |access-date=9 April 2022}} Kestnergesellschaft, among others. Her work has been featured in group shows at the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,{{cite web |last1=Beasley |first1=Mark |title=Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll since 1967 |url=https://www.artforum.com/print/200707/sympathy-for-the-devil-art-and-rock-and-roll-since-1967-15735 |website=Artform magazine |access-date=9 April 2022}} Australian Centre for Contemporary Art,{{cite web |title=Linder: In the Cut |url=https://acca.melbourne/explore/artist/linder |website=Australian Center for Contemporary Art |access-date=9 April 2022}} among other venues.

Sterling's work is represented by Modern Art, London; Blum & Poe, Los Angeles; and dépendance, Brussels.

May/September 2007: MoMA/P.S.1 (first U.S. solo exhibition){{cite web |title=Linder |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/4886 |access-date=9 April 2022 |website=Museum of Modern Art, New York}}
February/April 2013: Femme / Objet, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris{{cite web |title=Linder: City of Paris Museum of Modern Art |url=https://www.mam.paris.fr/en/expositions/exhibitions-linder |access-date=9 April 2022 |website=Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris}}
November 2023/April 2024: Women in Revolt!, Tate Modern{{Cite web |last=Tate |title=Women In Revolt! {{!}} Tate Britain |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/women-in-revolt |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=Tate |language=en-GB}}

=Public art=

In 2018, Sterling was commissioned by Art on the Underground to produce a public art work at Southwark station. The Bower of Bliss, her first large-scale public art piece in London, consisted of an 85-metre long street-level photomontage billboard and a cover commission for the 29th edition of the pocket Tube map.{{cite web |title=The Bower of Bliss |url=https://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/the-bower-of-bliss/ |website=Art on the Underground |access-date=9 April 2022}} Its launch was marked with a performance art piece in November 2018.{{cite web|url=https://art.tfl.gov.uk/events/the-bower-of-bliss-performance/ |title=Performance: The Bower of Bliss |website=Art on the Underground |publisher=Transport for London |access-date=20 February 2019}}

Performance art

The Bower of Bliss: An Improper Architecture, Women's Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, March 2020{{Cite web |title=Performance: Bower of Bliss: An Improper Architecture |url=https://womensart.murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk/event/performance-bower-bliss-improper-architecture/ |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=The Women's Art Collection |language=en-GB}}
The Bower of Bliss, Southwark Underground Station, London, November 2018 for Art on the Underground{{cite web|url=https://art.tfl.gov.uk/events/the-bower-of-bliss-performance/ |title=Performance: The Bower of Bliss |website=Art on the Underground |publisher=Transport for London |access-date=20 February 2019}}{{Cite web|last=Lloyd-Smith|first=Harriet|date=2018-11-28|title=Linder's new billboard artwork depicts a paradise of female pleasure|url=https://www.wallpaper.com/art/linder-art-on-the-underground|access-date=2021-03-24|website=Wallpaper*}}
Destination Moon. You must not look at her!, Duke of York Steps, London, 2016{{cite web|url=https://i-d.vice.com/en_gb/article/step-into-linder-sterlings-mad-and-magical-fairytale |title=Step into Linder Sterling's Mad and Magical Fairytale |website=i-D |access-date=20 February 2019}}
Donkey Skin, Art Night, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2016{{cite web|url=https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/art-night-duke-york-steps-ica-linder |title=Art Night: Duke of York Steps, ICA: Linder |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308044950/https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/art-night-duke-york-steps-ica-linder |archive-date=8 March 2017}}
Children of the Mantic Stain, Leeds Art Gallery, 2015{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQsc12u65QE |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406071201/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQsc12u65QE |archive-date=2017-04-06 |url-status=dead|title=Children of the Mantic Stain trailer|via=YouTube|access-date=24 July 2020}}
The Ultimate Form, Salle Matisse, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 2013{{cite web|url=http://le-beau-vice.blogspot.com/2013/02/le-ballet-de-linder-au-musee-dart.html |title=The Ultimate Form, salle Matisse, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris |website=le-beau-vice.blogspot.com |date=31 January 2013 |access-date=20 February 2019}}
The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of FAME, produced by Sorcha Dallas for the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Glasgow, 2010{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhb28RPV6m0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/qhb28RPV6m0 |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of FAME|via=YouTube|access-date=24 July 2020}}{{cbignore}}
The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of FAME, Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2010{{cite web|url=https://chisenhale.org.uk/programmes/interim/linder/ |title=Linder The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of FAME |access-date=20 February 2019}}
The Working Class Goes To Paradise, Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London, 2006{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tate-triennial-2006-linder-working-class-goes-paradise |title=Tate Triennial 2006: Linder – The Working Class Goes to Paradise |publisher=Tate.org.uk |date=2006-04-01 |access-date=2011-08-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726194503/http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tate-triennial-2006-linder-working-class-goes-paradise |archivedate=26 July 2014 }}
Ludus, Hacienda, Manchester, 1982{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km4yWwmipBY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/Km4yWwmipBY |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=LUDUS live at the Hacienda 1982 |website=YouTube |access-date=20 February 2019}}{{cbignore}}

Ludus (band)

In 1978, Linder founded the post-punk band Ludus, she performed as its singer and front-woman until the band split-up in 1983. She designed many of the group's album covers and sleeves. Ludus' music ranged from post punk to experimental avantgarde jazz to cocktail jazz. Sterling's distinctive vocal quality and techniques (including screaming, unusual sounds and laughter) combined with her lyrics, focused on female desire, alienation, sexual politics and gender roles. The bulk of the band's material was originally released on the indy labels such as New Hormones and Crepuscule.{{cite web |title=Ludus Biography |url=https://lesdisquesducrepuscule.com/ludus.html |website=Les Disques du Crépuscule |access-date=9 April 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Foster |first1=Richard |title=A Cut Above: Linder Sterling on Art & Ludus |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/21569-ludus-linder-sterling-interview |access-date=9 April 2022 |publisher=The Quietus |date=17 January 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/ludusbio.html |title=Ludus (band) biography at LTM |publisher=Ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk |access-date=2022-04-09 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110808143515/http://www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/ludusbio.html |archivedate=8 August 2011 }}

Publications

Linder, published by Ridinghouse 2015
Femme/Objet, published by Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 2013, on the occasion of Linder's solo exhibition
Linder: Works 1976–2006, (with essays written by Jon Savage, Philip Hoare, Lynne Tillman, Paul Bayley, Andrew Renton and Morrissey), published by JRP|Editions, 2006

Collections

Sterling's work is included in the permanent collection of the Tate Modern Museum,{{cite web |title=Linder born 1954 |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/linder-10844 |website=Tate Modern Museum |access-date=9 April 2022}} the Museum of Modern Art,{{cite web |title=Linder (Linder Sterling) |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/35423 |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=9 April 2022}} among others.

Honours and awards

In 2005, Sterling received a grant from the Arts Council of England.{{cite web |title=Annual Review 2005 |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/235128/0555.pdf |website=Arts Council of England |access-date=9 April 2022}} In 2017, she received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for her creative work. In 2018, she was named the first Artist-in-Residence at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. Her work during the residency was inspired by the Act of Representation of the People, which gave women over the age of thirty the right to vote.{{cite web |title=Linder Sterling Explores the Voices from Chatsworth;s History |url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/linder-sterling-explores-the-voices-from-chatsworths-history |website=Sotheby's |access-date=9 April 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Jones |first1=Jonathan |title=The House of Fame Review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/mar/26/linder-sterling-the-house-of-fame-review-nottingham |access-date=9 April 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=26 March 2018}}

Personal life

Sterling has a son, Maxwell Sterling.{{Cite web|url=https://www.factmag.com/2016/08/04/maxwell-sterling-hollywood-medieval-interview-stream/|title=Maxwell Sterling soundtracks LA's brutal boulevards on Hollywood Medieval|website=Factmag.com|date=4 August 2016|access-date=24 July 2020}} She lives and works in London.

Sterling is a long time friend of The Smiths lead singer, Morrissey, since they met at a Sex Pistols sound check in Manchester in 1976.{{Cite web|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/linder|title=Linder|website=Interviewmagazine.com|date=22 February 2010|access-date=8 January 2023}} Sterling was the inspiration for The Smiths' critically acclaimed song "Cemetry Gates."

References

Bibliography

{{cite book

| last = O'Brien

| first = Lucy

| chapter = The woman punk made me

| editor = Sabin, Roger

| title = Punk Rock: So What?

| url = https://archive.org/details/punkrocksowhatcu00sabi

| url-access = limited

| year = 1999

| publisher=Routledge

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/punkrocksowhatcu00sabi/page/n198 186]–198}}

{{cite book |last=Rogan |first=Johnny |title=Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance |year=1992 |publisher=Omnibus Press |pages=102–103, 109–111}}