Look, I’m not an expert about women’s art although I’m a fan of The White Pube, Nan Goldin, Jenny Saville, Cindy Sherman, the artists of Women in Revolt etc. Not a total neophyte then, and yet much of the art and many of the women artists mentioned in Louise O’Hare’s memoir had to be speed Googled/referenced just so I could keep up. Its strength is that Centrefold 74 A Memoir never at any time felt dry or academic, more like you’d been collared by a pithy and opinionated randomer but felt gripped to listen to as they were just too damn interesting to ignore. Whip-smart and madly compelling it’s hung around the reaction to and history of Lynda Benglis’s Centrefold, and interspersed with chunky bits of biog about the politics of motherhood, feminism, the art world (“Working all the time, but also not having a job”) and how we understand and talk about art in a world which has changed so much. In 1974 Lynda Benglis’s photo, the artist nude with a 12” dildo poking suggestively from her crotch created an absolute shit-storm when it was placed as a bogus ad in Art Forum magazine. Cue accusations of pornography, resignations and bitter debate, which, from where we are in our pornified world at the moment, seems hard to believe. I’m trying to think what today would create the same level of controversy/notoriety and can’t think that female nudity in any form would, except maybe if slices of watermelon or a Free Palestine badge were somewhere present. Which would then mean not comparable as Centrefold does not have any visible peace signs or scattered bullets from Kent State or My Lai. How Louise O’Hare tackles so much in two hundred forty-four pages is something else, and I should mention her sly humour which cuts through the art world and art mag/critical shenanigans with great effect, “letting the wrong-ness hang out”. And, don’t worry, I’ll now head back to my comfort zone of music and novels but will take plenty with me from this book. Centrefold 74, is a present and future classic. Totally recommended.

Centrefold 1974 (A Memoir) – Louise O’Hare – publ. by Ma Bibliothèque £15.00

Steven Long