Bell Hooks

Richard Lindner was a social commentator and a satirist of sexual mores, a man of profound intelligence, biting irony, and prodigious wit. The hard metallic edge of his figures emblematic garments and geometrically composed bodies serve well to convey Lindner’s commentary upon Eros without sensuality. His mature compositions are parodies of urban sexual confrontations. Certainly no consummation of love takes place between Lindner’s couples, who engage in games of arousal and evasion. The paintings appear to be obvious displays of stereotypes that flaunt the fashions of Lindner’s time. Reflecting the images of the media culture, they have been compared with paintings by Pop artists, for some of whom Lindner served as a father figure. But unlike the work of his Pop contemporaries, his is disruptive rather than accepting, mocking instead of condoning. A reading of his pictures needs to go below the surface of their shiny appearances, as his paintings are filled with hidden meanings.
All his life Lindner was preoccupied with fantasies and secrets. He   preferred    to   depict   women,   because,   he said,   « they