THIRST TRAP

Marilyn Minter takes an exclusive self-portrait for Tatler and reminds the world why raw, honest, non-conforming beauty is the most compelling kind

- Aaina Bhargava

“Frankly, if I was 21 years old and Bill Clinton wanted to f *ck me, I’d have f*cked him in a nanosecond.” Marilyn Minter was characteristically unfiltered when she spoke with Tatler over a video call in November. The conversation was about the 75-year-old artist’s upcoming presentations in Hong Kong and Seoul, but quickly veered into a throng of passionate quips about strong woman figures who have been unfairly and overly scrutinised.

Her thoughts about the saxophone-playing former American president were in reference to a recent portrait she shot of Monica Lewinsky, which was first exhibited at a LDGR gallery in New York last April. “She’s a hero to me, because she went through f*cking hell and she was just 21 years old,” says Minter of the woman whose name for many people, even two decades after she burst into public consciousness, is still synonymous with political scandal.

While contemporary analysis of the debacle no longer portrays the former White House intern as a homewrecker, at the time, mainstream feminists were outraged by her part in the affair. Minter has similarly appalled those who claim to speak for women. In 1989, the artist’s provocative Porn Grid Series was criticised for featuring sexually explicit, pornographic scenes highlighting female desire, rather than the male gaze. “There was an idea of pro-sex feminism that wasn’t accepted at time,” says the painter of her sexually liberal beliefs that emphasised the ownership of female desire and sexuality. “I was [considered] a traitor to a generation of feminists.”