Wilke is a major figure in the feminist art movement. Trained in ceramics, she became known for her suggestive folded sculptures made of terra cotta, latex, lint, erasers, and chewing gum. She gained notoriety in the 1970s for affixing chewing gum sculpture to her nude body in a series of performances and photographs. Alongside her sculptural and performance work, Wilke was an avid draftswoman, creating drawings at every stage of her career. This early sheet reflects Wilke's admiration of the Armenian American artist Arshile Gorky, who influenced the Abstract Expressionists. She was also drawn to the fluidity of Jackson Pollock, which translated into her drawings and latex sculptures. In these works, however, she strove to approach gestural abstraction from a distinctly female point of view. Like so much of Wilke's oeuvre, this sheet is both provocative and humorous. The boldly colored composition features a profusion of marks and shapes redolent of Gorky and her contemporary, Eva Hesse. Bright red phallic or labial forms seem to double as cartoonish shoes, while active lines and the presence of an arrow hint at a scene of chaotic, rather than sensual, entanglement.
Signed and dated recto, lower right: "Wilke 65"