Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

E X P E R I E N C E S , P E R S O N A L A R T, A N D R E V I E W S O F F A M O U S A R T I S T S

M O N D A Y, N O V E M B E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 ABOUT M E

Entry #23: Art About The Body M A RIA

Once you start to research it, it's surprising just how many artists use the body Art student
in their works. Here are a few more artists I haven't covered in my other posts. in Boise,
Idaho. Studying graphic
Rebecca Horn design but madly in love
The requirements for the third project seem to have been based on Horn's with darkroom photography
work! I'm not sure whether it's a coincidence, but her works are based and art history.
extensively on the body. She's made extensions for limbs of the body, V IE W M Y C OM PL E T E PR OF IL E
prosthesis-like fantasy limbs, and also transformed the body into other
objects. The body that she modifies in her works is always exclusively female.
Is Horn trying to make a statement about feminism? Perhaps she is C O N TA C T I N F O

highlighting the fact that women try to (and are socially expected to) alter musingsofanartstudent AT
their bodies to be aesthetically pleasing. Her work also has the re-occurring gmail DOT com
suggestions of force and bondage. The first piece, if you look closely, is
attached to the model's body through a series of belts. And the mask looks like
LABELS
a medieval torture device!
anti-art (4)
art critics (3)
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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

Contemporary Art (15)

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Rebecca Horn: Unicorn, 1970. Performance Art (3)
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BL OG ARCH IVE

► 2011 (18)
▼ 2010 (52)

Rebecca Horn: Pencil Mask, 1972. ► December (13)

▼ November (15)
Caroline Broadhead
Artist Review #14: Otto
As Marcel Duchamp said, art should happen in the mind. The work of Caroline
Dix
Broadhead is the essence of this approach since it is about something that it
not actually present. The dresses, with their translucent ethereal-ness, suggest Artist Review #13:
human presence since their silhouette so closely mimics human form. In that Frida Kahlo

way, the works are not about the dresses per say, but about what the dresses Artist Review #12:
imply. The first work is also very successful formally because of the Rene Magritte
overlapping of the dresses which allows the patterns to become muddled Artist Review #11:

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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

where they overlap, which helps to suggest depth. The wire outlines of the Margaret Kilgallen
second piece make it even more ambiguous and abstract than the first piece. Entry #25: "Like A
What the wire outlines seem to be suggesting is the forms of dresses, but very Museum"
loosely rendered.
Artist Review #10: Man
Ray
Artist Review #9: Kurt
Schwitters
Entry #24:
Performance Art
Entry #23: Art About
The Body
Entry #22: Two
Different Approaches
To Using The B...
Entry #21: How
Conceptual Art
Challenges The Idea
...
Entry #20: Why
Conceptual Art and
Fine-Art Are Equ...
Entry #19: On the
Importance of Scale
in Art
Entry #18: Body Art
Entry #17: Art around
NYC

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COPYRIGHT

I retain full copyright on my

writing and all
photographs of my art. My
original content may not
be used without
permission.

Louise Bourgeois
ART ELSEWHERE

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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

Writing About Art

Greenberg's essays
Art21

PH OTOGR APHY

Marie Fleur Charlesworth

Photojournalism Links
Shorpy
Vivian Maier
Megan McIsaac

STR EET ART

Unurth Street Art

Louise Bourgeois is an easy one. Almost all of her works incorporate human
forms in some way. She tackles overt sexual themes and in that way her work
is very confrontational. Louise Bourgeois died this year at the age of 98 and
her artistic career spanned almost her entire life. I see her work as being very
feminist--a reaction to the misogyny of the Surrealists by whom she was so
inspired during the early stages of her artistic development. Sexually themed
subjects and nudes were standard subject matter for the male Surrealists, but
women never made works like this until after the women's liberation
movement of the 1960s. As an artist and a women she was bold and brave.

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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

Janine Antoni

Janine Antoni: Saddle, 2000.

Janine Antoni's work is especially interesting because she uses herself as the
subject of her works. Her approach is grounded in the autobiographical. It's as
though she's exploring herself, her physical limitations and capabilities, in
each piece. Many artists have an agenda, some social or political issue they try
to address in their work like racism or oppression. Janine Antoni's focus is

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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

wholly herself: her body and her experiences.

Janine Antoni: Gnaw, 1992.

This is actually my favorite Janine Antoni work. Often the most successful
Conceptual Art pieces are the simple ones. Something that the audience will
understand immediately. For those attributes, this is brilliant. The title says all
you need to know about it. This could have been a successful performance
piece as well, to see her gnawing on the giant block of chocolate. Many people
interpret this piece as being about anorexia, but it could also be about the
process itself, something that simple.

Janine Antoni: Loving Care, 1993.

This is a powerful work as well. Meaning-wise it's hard to postulate, but you
have to admire her for having the perseverance to paint the floor of an entire
room with her hair. A common element that all of her work shares is the
emphasis on process. With every work, it's not about the finished piece but
about the process of its creation. In that way, all of her works are

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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

performances. If you're intrigued by this piece then watch the video of the
performance for the full effect!

Ana Mendieta

Ana Mendieta: Glass On Body, 1972.

Mendieta's work has the sexually-charged themes of Louis Bourgeois coupled

with the approach of Janine Antoni (though Mendieta actually predates
Antoni). Though Mendieta's subject matter is perhaps even more striking
since she uses herself, and her own body, in her works. In light of Janine
Antoni's work that may not seem so controversial, but Mendieta worked in the
1970s when Yoko Ono's Cut Piece (1965) was considered daring. Mendieta was
among a small group of feminist artists to challenge deeply-ingrained
standards about female nudity.

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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

Ana Mendieta: Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants), 1972.

Ana Mendieta: Tree of Life, 1976.

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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

Ana Mendieta: Body Tracks performance, 1982.

Ana Mendieta: Body Tracks, 1982.

For the performance of body tracks Ana Mendieta dipped her hands and arms
into a mixture of animal blood and paint and made 'drawings' on three pieces
of paper by pressing her arms over them. The performance was brief, but
powerful in its implications. The three drawings are now preserved as records
of the performance, and exist as works of art in their own right.

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Musings Of An Art Student: Entry #23: Art About The Body http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.mx/2010/11/entry-22-art-about-body...

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