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Indepth Arts News:
"The Nude in Contemporary Art
The Nude in Contemporary Art"
1999-06-06 until 1999-09-12
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art
Ridgefield, CT,
USA United States of America
The Nude in Contemporary Art, an exhibition curated by director Harry Philbrick with assistant
director Richard Klein and assistant curator Jessica Hough, specifically focuses on how the
human form - a perennial art subject throughout history in painting, drawing, and sculpture - has
been re-interpreted by emerging and influential contemporary artists.
According to Harry Philbrick, the chief curator, The exhibition gives us an opportunity to see how
artists from America, Europe, and Japan - some young, some old - confront one of the greatest
challenges in art: depicting the nude. The work in the exhibition deals with birth, aging, beauty,
intimate domestic moments, nature, and cultural stereotypes: a wide range of topics all
expressed through the human form. Some of the work in the exhibition may be considered deeply
traditional in its furtherance of the practice of artists
exploring issues of aesthetics, beauty, gender, and mortality
through the depiction of the human form, but in all instances
the work transcends convention. The exhibition includes
painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture, as well as
the newer media of holography, video, and installation.
Karen Finleys Go Figure, an installation that consists of a life drawing class with a model and
instructor, will be held on a regular basis during the run of the exhibition in Gallery Nine on the third
floor of the Museum. Newsprint pads and charcoal will be available for visitors who wish to
participate in the class. Resultant drawings will be hung in the gallery as part of the Go Figure
installation. Karen Finley will conduct a preliminary life drawing class on Saturday, June 5, the day
before the exhibitions opening reception. All subsequent life drawing classes will be in conjunction
with the Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, Wooster Community Art Center, Danbury, and
Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, and will take place Tuesday through Sunday, 1 to 3 pm at the
Museum.
The exhibition will also include an off-site installation
by Melanie Manchot. The curators have secured the
use of a roughly 10-by-22-foot billboard in Manhattan
(West 20th Street at Tenth Avenue) for a cropped
nude portrait of the artists mother, who appears in
the foreground of a panoramic Swiss mountain
range. The full photograph will be included in the
exhibition at the Museum.
The following artists are scheduled for inclusion in The Nude in Contemporary Art: Laura
Aguilar, Tina Barney, Lisa Bartolozzi, William Beckman, Brett Bigbee, Paul Cadmus, Sherry
Camhy, David Carbone, Harriet Casdin-Silver, Joe Cavallaro, Eteri Chkadua, Chuck Close,
John Coplans, RenČe Cox, Meg Cranston, James Croak, John Currin, Steven DiGiovanni,
Jeanne Dunning, Karen Finley, Lucian Freud, Philip Grausman, Chris Habib, Anne Harris,
Jacqueline Hayden, Kinke Kooi, Peter Krashes, Daniel Ladd, Jacob Lawrence, Harriet
Leibowitz, Michael Leonard, Melanie Manchot, Denise Marika, John OReilly, Hanneline
R¯geberg, Karin Sander, Jenny Saville, Andres Serrano, Robert Stivers, Annelies vStrba,
Jock Sturges, Robert Taplin, Spencer Tunick, Manabu Yamanaka, and Lisa Yuskavage.
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