BODY

OF
ART
1
ABOUT THE BOOK

Interestingly, and surprisingly, there has never been an

illustrated book focusing on the body, one that gives not
only a complete history of how the human form has been
BEAUTY 12
represented in visual culture over time, but also how it
has become – literally and metaphorically – the canvas
on which and through which we talk about human

THE ABSENT BODY

experience.

Unprecedented in its scope and rigour, Body of Art spans 48

art Western and non-Western, ancient to contemporary,
figurative, abstract and conceptual. Works are curated by
theme into ten chapters: beauty, the absent body, religion
and belief, bodies and space, sex and gender, emotion

RELIGION & BELIEF

embodied, power, the body’s limits, the abject body and
identity. Dynamic juxtapositions create an original and
thought-provoking take on this most fundamental of 68
subjects and an illustrated timeline provides broader
historical and social contexts.

With works ranging from eight-armed Hindu gods and

BODIES & SPACE

ancient Greek reliefs, to John Singer Sargent’s intriguing
Madame X, from Robert Mapplethorpe’s seductive pho-
tographs to Sarah Lucas’s provocative sculptures, this is 100
more than a book of representations. Bringing to life the
diversity of cultures through the prism of the body, it cele-
brates and communicates art with accessible scholarship,
to thrill and inform both enthusiast and expert.

SEX & GENDER 126

EMOTION EMBODIED 188

POWER 212

THE BODY’S LIMITS 248

THE ABJECT BODY 284

IDENTITY 306

2 3
 VENUS OF WILLENDORF. ←
c.24,000–22,000 BC 

Limestone, H 11.1 cm (4½ in). Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna

This small statuette, originally coloured red,

is a rare stone example of a Palaeolithic ‘Venus’
figurine; most are fashioned from clay. It was
found in 1908 on the site of a nomadic settlement
on the banks of the Danube in Austria, and would
have been brought from elsewhere, as the oolitic
limestone from which it is made does not occur
locally. There were never any feet, and the figure
cannot stand independently, but unlike most
Venuses it does possess hands, which rest above
the pendulous breasts. The breasts, thighs, belly
and buttocks are grossly exaggerated, and the
navel and pubic opening are distinct, all of which
have suggested a function for the object as some
sort of fertility symbol. The face is undefined,
apart from a spiral design that may indicate an
elaborate arrangement of hair, and the suggestion
that she is looking down has led to interpretations
of these figures as having an attitude of submis-
sion. It may simply be that the individual features
of a face were of no significance in a figure
created as a symbol of sexual fecundity and
reproduction. Venus figurines held a fascination
in the early twentieth century for Pablo Picasso,
who kept replicas in his studio.

KRITIOS BOY. c.490–80 BC ←

Marble, H 120 cm (46 in). Acropolis Museum, Athens

Named in honour of an early fifth-century BC

sculptor whose works this face resembles, the
Kritios Boy can be seen either as one of the last
kouros (‘youth’) figures of the Greek Archaic
period (800–480 BC) or as one of the earliest
surviving Early Classical (c.480–50 BC) sculp-
tures. The frontal stance follows the tradition
of Archaic votive sculptures, with the left leg
forward and arms at the sides, but for the first
time the right leg is relaxed, with the knee bent
and the figure’s weight on the back leg. Moreover,
the sculptor has depicted with fine accuracy the VANESSA BEECROFT. VB 46. 2001 ↑
anatomical shifts that this motion produces in
the upper body, raising the left side of the pelvis Performance. Gagosian Gallery, London
and curving the spine slightly, producing a sense
of arrested movement. Instead of the fixed ‘archa- Clothed, we stand and look. Naked, Beecroft’s of bodies? By constructing a tableau vivant that
ic’ smile, the expression is relaxed, and the slight (b.1969) women stand and are looked at. Their is cold and tense, these women in wigs and high
turn of the head means that the youth no longer bodies do not deny the gaze, but their postures heels have more in common with the bored and
engages directly with the viewer. This imparts a are too rigid and mathematical to be erotic; too confronting stare of Manet’s Olympia than with
sense of voyeurism to the work that sets it apart conspicuous and obstinate to pass easily into the Titian’s dreaming Venus of Urbino. Beecroft com-
from earlier kouroi, adding to the eroticism of the tradition of the merely beautiful. In the history of bines and questions a multitude of signs from the
slim musculature of the youthful frame. The eyes European classical nudes the woman’s body has – history of Western art, fashion, advertising and
would originally have contained inserts of some with few exceptions – been suggestively available. science fiction, but in all her performances the
other material, adding to the sculpture’s verisi- Languid and sensual, the painted female body women remain inaccessible in their nakedness.
militude, and the hair and wispy sideburns reflect coyly waits to be possessed and activated by the It is, rather, the clothed spectator who adopts the
contemporary bronze sculpting techniques. spectator. But who owns Beecroft’s constellation passive posture of the observed.

4 BEAUTY BEAUTY 5
POWER

7
SANDRO BOTTICELLI. THE BIRTH →
OF VENUS. 1486

Tempera on canvas, 172.5 cm × 278.5 cm (68 × 109⅔ in).

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Venus, goddess of love and beauty, stands

naked on a seashell floating in the sea. Flying
nearby, Zephyrus, the west wind, blows her
ashore. Awaiting her there is one of the Horae,
goddesses of the seasons; she holds a robe
decorated with flowers, ready to cover Venus’s
body. Botticelli (1445–1510) painted this work for
the wealthy banker Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’
Medici to represent the Neo-Platonic concept
of divine love. The picture was also among the
first to represent mythological stories with a
seriousness traditionally reserved for religious
themes. Here, Venus is not an erotic symbol but
the embodiment of beauty, the contemplation of
which was intended to inspire noble thoughts.
To Plato – the ancient Greek philosopher most
esteemed by Lorenzo and his circle – beauty was
interchangeable with truth. Botticelli has painted
Venus almost as if she were a statue, rendering
her flesh marble-pale. Although Botticelli’s
Venus, with her attenuated neck and tilted head,
adopts a more awkward and improbable pose,
her stance recalls an ancient Greek prototype:
the Aphrodite of Knidos (fourth century BC, now
lost) by the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles. Known
as the Venus Pudica (or ‘Modest Venus’), because
of the position of her hands, it inspired many
copies (see p.87).

8 BEAUTY BEAUTY 9
EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE. RUNNING ↑
MAN (PLATE NO. 60 FROM ‘ANIMAL
LOCOMOTION’). 1887
Collotype, 17.8 × 40.6 cm (7 × 16 in)
These 24 photographs showing a man running
are among the first successfully to capture the
human body in motion. They form part of
Muybridge’s (1830–1904) ‘Animal Locomotion’
series, commissioned by the University of
Pennsylvania in 1873. Working with professors
of physiology, engineering and anatomy,
Muybridge spent four years on the project,
creating 24,000 photographs, of which 781
feature men and women performing common
actions. Custom-built cameras operated with
electrical shutters allowed Muybridge to take
multiple exposures in sequence at regular
intervals. The university constructed an outdoor
studio with cameras placed so as to capture
subjects from the side, front, back, and from a
45-degree angle. The Running Man photographs
demonstrate the action and movement of the
human body’s limbs and muscles in a way that
had previously been impossible. Although
originally intended as a scientific study aid
(as indicated by the anthropometric grid behind
the subject), the photographs of this anonymous
runner have transcended their original context
to become iconic images in the history of
photography and represent an important step
in the development of cinematography.
10
UMBERTO BOCCIONI. UNIQUE →
FORMS OF CONTINUITY IN SPACE. 1913
Bronze (cast in 1931), 117.5 × 87.6 × 36.8 cm (46¼ × 34½ × 14½ in)
Tate, London
A superhuman marching man, his body shaped
by the powerful forces of wind and speed, thrusts
dynamically forward. This sculpture embodies
the philosophy of Boccioni and the Italian Futur-
ists, for whom movement, power and technology
were the essential attributes of the modern world.
Here, both the body and the surrounding air
displaced by it are rendered in an arabesque of
curves, flames and straight lines. Over more than
two years, Boccioni (1882–1916) perfected these
forms in paintings, drawings and sculptures,
including a series of precise studies of human
musculature. In 1912 he published his ‘Technical
Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture’, in which he
described his vision for a new sculptural practice.
Objects would no longer be mere attributes or
decorative elements, but would be embedded into
the muscular lines of the body itself. ‘Let us fling
open the figure’, he wrote, ‘and let it incorporate
within itself whatever may surround it.’ Boccioni’s
experiments translating dynamism and force
into sculptural form were cut short when he was
wounded while fighting in the Italian army in
1915. The following year, almost recovered from
his injuries, he was killed in a fall from a horse
during cavalry exercises.
BODIES & SPACE BODIES & SPACE 11
HENRY FUSELI. THE NIGHTMARE. 1781
Oil on canvas, 101.6 × 127 cm (40 × 49 7/8 in). Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
In the late eighteenth century the nature and
origins of dreams were popular topics of discus-
sion, and visions of the night featured heavily
in the Gothic novels then coming into vogue.
In Western art, however, dreams were still rela-
tively unexplored territory. Fuseli’s (1741–1825)
obsession with picturing sleep and dreaming
found its most famous expression in The Night-
mare, which was greeted with both horror and
admiration. It was not just the hideous squatting
creature that excited interest, but the fact that this
incubus, the horse and the girl’s submissive pose
all had obvious sexual connotations. The idea that
dreams might contain supernatural properties as
12
↓
well as fragments of everyday experience clearly
intrigued Fuseli. (The age of reason had begun to
ascribe the origins of dreams to physical causes
such as indigestion, and a rumour circulated
that Fuseli deliberately ate raw pork in order to
induce dreams.) Yet here, rather than illustrating
the vagaries of a dream, Fuseli conveys the un-
mistakeable terror and suffocating oppression of
a nightmare. In spite of the somewhat pantomime
presence of the horse, the crouching incubus
– a demon of the night that preys upon human
women while they sleep – can still elicit a distinct
sense of fear in viewers.
EMOTION EMBODIED
EDWARD HOPPER. ↑
SUMMER IN THE CITY. 1949
Oil on canvas. 76 × 51 cm (30 × 20 in). Private collection
A woman in a red dress sits hunched on the edge
of a bed. With her arms folded, she stares glumly
into space. Behind her, a naked man lies face
down on the bed, his head buried in a pillow.
The body language of this couple suggests a deep
tension. Summer sunlight streams through the
window and illuminates the woman but leaves
her companion in shadow, further emphasizing
the emotional distance between the pair. The
artist Josephine Nivison, Hopper’s wife, actually
modelled for the legs of the male figure. The dis-
satisfaction she felt with the sexual dimension of
her marriage to Hopper (1882–1967) is well docu-
mented and probably informs this uncomfortable
scene with its sense of voyeurism. The bodily
intimacy recently experienced by this couple has
given way to melancholy, alienation and despair.
Hopper’s original title for the painting was Triste
Apres l’Amour (‘Sad After Love’); but worried that
this might jeopardize its sale, he retitled it Summer
in the City.
EMOTION EMBODIED 13
 JOSEF BEUYS. THE FELT SUIT. 1970 ←

Felt and wood (edition of 100). 170 × 60 cm (67 × 23⅔ in).

Tate, London

Displayed above the heads of viewers, elevated

and untouchable, Beuys’s Felt Suit is both
a secular relic and a surrogate self-portrait.
A sculptor, performance artist, political activist
and unconventional thinker, Beuys (1921–86)
was high priest of the avant-garde in post-war
Germany. During his lifetime he became a
cult figure, largely as a result of the personal
mythology and identity that he created for
himself. Beuys emerged from the wreckage
of Germany’s recent past as a type of modern
shaman whose tools included fat and felt. To
him, these organic materials were emblems
of healing: fat is a nurturing, body-sustaining
substance, and felt has insulating properties.
Produced as a multiple (in a reasonably afford-
able and accessible limited edition), Felt Suit
was modelled on one that Beuys wore in an
anti-war action that he performed in Düsseldorf
in November 1970. In its colour and cut the suit
appears utilitarian, and the fact that it has no
fastenings suggests that it might be a prisoner’s
or convict’s uniform, symbolic of the body it
once encased. However, Beuys explained that
the character of the material dictated the lack
of buttons and buttonholes, since the suit was
not intended to be worn but instead to signify
spiritual or evolutionary warmth.

GILBERT AND GEORGE. THE SINGING →

SCULPTURE. 1970

Performance. Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London

‘Being living sculptures is our life blood, our des-

tiny, our romance, our disaster, our light and life’,
wrote conceptual artist duo Gilbert and George,
who presented themselves as ‘living sculptures’
in the 1960s and 1970s. For The Singing Sculpture,
the artists covered their hands and faces in bronze
powder, dressed in tweed ‘responsibility suits’,
as they called them, and stood atop a table while
singing along to the 1930’s standard ‘Underneath
the Arches’ playing from a tape recorder below.
When the song finished, one of them stepped
down to rewind the tape so they could perform
the whole routine again. This sometimes went
on for up to eight hours. Rather than trying to
embody the classical virtues that inspired the
idealized figurative sculpture of antiquity and
the Renaissance, Gilbert and George looked to
lowbrow sources, such as pop music and the acts
of metallic-painted street performers who pose
as statues for tips. And unlike professional
singers or actors, Gilbert and George made no
attempt to astound their audience through their
stage presence and performed with minimally
stiff and awkward movements. The work’s inno-
vation derived not from virtuosity in a medium –
sculpture, theatre or music – but rather through
the conceptual framing of the living body in
an art context.

14 THE ABSENT BODY THE ABSENT BODY 15

LUCIAN FREUD. BENEFITS →
SUPERVISOR SLEEPING. 1995 

Oil on canvas. 151.3 × 219 cm (59½ × 86 ¼ in). Private collection

Lucian Freud’s full-length portrait of Sue Tilley

(a Social Security official who posed for the
picture at night so as not to interfere with her
office hours) responds to a long Western tradition
of reclining female nudes, as seen, for example,
in Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus (c.1508–10). Yet here
Freud (1922–2011) daringly forsakes the idealized
body of a traditional sleeping Venus with soft,
luminous flesh and long, slender proportions.
Through his unflinching realism and the deadpan,
slightly overhead vantage point, which flattens
the background and thrusts the figure closer to
the picture plane, Freud intimately exposes the
aesthetic of a real body. He renders the pull of
gravity upon Tilley’s flesh with sensitivity and ob-
serves subtle changes in skin tone – for example,
the cooler flesh colours swirling around her right
thigh transition to warmer yellow and pink on
her knee. He treats paint as flesh by using heavy
impasto to build the texture and shape of human
forms (forms that resonate in the billowing cush-
ions of the floral patterned couch). The whole
painting seems alive with flesh, as the colours
of the skin echo in the earth tones of the setting.

DANA SCHUTZ. RECLINING NUDE ←

FROM ‘FRANK FROM OBSERVATION’. 2002

Oil on canvas. 121.9 × 167.6 cm (48 × 66 in).

Private collection

This painting is one scene from a series of

post-apocalyptic scenarios dreamt up by Schutz
(b.1976). Frank, a fictional subject, is the last man
on Earth, and Schutz the last remaining painter
(and woman). Stretched out on a beach, sun-
burnt-pink, scruffy and obliging, Frank poses
like a pin-up, yet his sexuality is somehow benign.
Despite being the only surviving specimen of
masculinity, in his isolation he is emasculated.
By inventing a world where Frank is her only
subject, and by extension her only available
muse, Schutz subtly subverts the tradition of the
reclining nude, in which women have historically
been painted as passive, receptive and suggestive
odalisques in service of the male gaze. By taking
portraiture back to her own imaginary ‘ground
zero’, Schutz makes Frank both model and fool.
In his philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(1883–91), philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
disparagingly describes the ‘Last Man’ as a figure
who is tame, mediocre and uninspiring; a man
who ‘lives the longest’ and makes ‘everything
small’. Under her active and lampooning brush,
Frank’s body becomes the property of Schutz –
a plaything, the butt of a joke, a Nietzschean loser.
YASUMASA MORIMURA. PORTRAIT (FUTAGO). 1988 
Chromogenic print with acrylic paint and gel medium. 210.2 × 299.7 cm (82¾ × 118 in). Edition of 3.
Yasumasa Morimura’s art is never quite what it
seems. For his ‘Daughter of Art History’ series,
Morimura restaged famous paintings from the
art history canon that he was taught in school
in Japan (where he learned about Western art,
rather than Asian), using elaborate scenery,
props, costumes and makeup. Morimura (b.1951)
has himself assumed the role of protagonist in
re-stagings of masterpieces by Édouard Manet,
Johannes Vermeer, Frida Kahlo, Rembrandt van
Rijn and Leonardo da Vinci. In Portrait (Futago),
his reinterpretation of Manet’s Olympia (1863), the
female European prostitute is now an Asian male.
↑
In his re-appropriation of the odalisque, a slave
or concubine in a harem who is usually depicted
as a reclining nude, Morimura calls attention
to the orientalism, and perhaps misogyny, in
Manet’s work and in Western art in general. While
the African servant from the original painting
remains in Morimura’s re-creation, the sleeping
cat at the end of the bed has been replaced by
a maneki-neko, a beckoning cat figurine that is
believed to bring good luck. Morimura’s self-
portraits as famous women from art history and
popular culture break down the pairings between
male and female, as well as East and West.

16 BEAUTY BEAUTY 17
 w

KEY SALES POINTS

TANIA BRUGUERA. THE BURDEN OF GUILT.
1997–9 →

Decapitated lamb, rope, water, salt, Cuban soil.

In the late 1990s, Bruguera (b.1968) began a

series of highly visceral, metaphorical perfor-
mances that commented on the history of the
Cuban people and contemporary guilt felt about
the nation’s foundation during which the island’s
native population all but eradicated. The Burden
of Guilt is inspired by a story of the collective
suicide of a group of indigenous Cubans who ate
dirt until they died in an act of rebellion against

The first book to celebrate the beautiful and provocative

their Spanish oppressors: literally consuming
their own ancestral land and gaining ownership
over the destruction of their culture, heritage and
bodies. Bruguera re-enacted this solemn gesture,
rolling dirt mixed with salt water, symbolizing

ways artists have represented, scrutinized and utilized

tears of sorrow and regret, into small balls, and
slowly eating them over several hours in an act
of penance. She appeared naked except for the
carcass of a slaughtered lamb hung from her
neck, all at once resembling a shield, gaping

the body over centuries

wound and sacrificial offering. Brugera’s work
examines fundamental questions of power and
vulnerability in relation to the personal, political
and collective body, and typically features the
artist performing physically demanding rituals.
Having relocated from Cuba to live in the US,
her early work involved re-stagings of corporal

BEAUTY
performances by another exiled Cuban artist,
Ana Mendieta.

Examines art through that most accessible and relatable

lens: the human body

‘MAYA RELIEF OF ROYAL BLOOD-LETTING’ (YAXCHILÁN LINTEL 24). c.AD 725 ↑

Limestone, 109 × 74 cm (43 × 29 in). British Museum, London

Lintel 24 was one of three carved lintels installed

above doorways in Structure 23 at Yaxchilán, a
Maya city in Chiapas, Mexico. Commissioned by
the ruler that it depicts, the carving records a roy-
al blood-letting ceremony that took place on 24
October AD 709, according to the glyphs at upper
left. The King of Yaxchilán, Shield Jaguar II (r.
AD 681–742), holds a flaming torch over his wife,
Lady K’ab’al Xook, as she pulls a rope through
studded with thorns, but the discovery of 146
obsidian blades in a tomb in Structure 23 that
may belong to Lady K’ab’al Xook suggests instead
that these were embedded in the rope. The lintel’s
There are no directly comparable titles in the market;
this is the only book to examine the subject in such depth
carving is unusually realistic and highly detailed,
even down to the strings holding the figures’
wrist cuffs. Shield Jaguar II wears a pendant of
the sun god on a bead necklace, and it has been
suggested that the mask on his headband may

and scope
her tongue. Blood curls are shown on her face actually be a shrunken head, used as a symbol of
and drips onto a basket of papers that will later power.
be burned. It was long assumed that the rope was

20 POWER POWER 21
18 19

Diverse and multi-cultural, it explores the manifestations

of the body through time, cultures and media

Visually arresting, it will surprise, inspire and inform

GUSTAVE COURBET. THE SLEEPERS. 1866 ↓

Oil on canvas, 135 × 200 cm (53 1/8 × 78¾ cm). Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris

Gustave Courbet’s The Sleepers shows two women Courbet (1819–77) was a pioneer of the nine-

art lovers everywhere

in a sensuous post-coital nap and marks one of
the first explicit depictions of lesbianism in art.
The two bodies entwine in ecstatic abandon – the
rumpled sheets, loose hairpin and broken string
of pearls a frank testament to their passionate
activities. The painting portrays the lovers as
contemporary figures, without the conventional
artifice of mythology. The theme of lesbianism,
representing a rebellion against bourgeois mores,
attracted numerous writers and artists in nine-
teenth-century France, including Charles Baude-
laire (1821–67), whose 1857 Fleurs du Mal poetry
collection reportedly inspired this painting.
teenth-century realist movement and caused
controversy with works such as A Burial at Ornans
(1849–50), featuring ordinary people presented at
a grand scale that was typically reserved for histo-
ry painting. Commissioned by a private Turkish
collector in Paris, The Sleepers erotic content was
considered so taboo that it occasioned a police
report in 1872 when displayed by a dealer and
was not publicly shown until 1988. However, both
The Sleepers and Courbet’s graphic depiction of
female genitalia, The Origin of the World (1866),
opened the way for a realistic exploration of
female sexuality in art.

Over 400 artists featured: works range from 11,000 BC

hand stencils in Argentine caves to videos and
performances by contemporary artists such as Marina
Abramović, Joan Jonas and Bruce Nauman

SARAH LUCAS. AU NATUREL. 1994

Mattress, water bucket, melons, oranges and cucumber. 84 × 168 × 145 cm (33 × 66 1/8 × 57 in). Saatchi Gallery, London
↑

Follows in the tradition of bestsellers such as The Story

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. DAVID. 1501–4
Marble, H 4.34 m (169 in), including base. Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence
Michelangelo’s sculpture depicts David moments
before he will slay the giant Goliath, yet the Old
Testament boy-hero appears to stand relaxed,
original intended location was atop a buttress
of Florence’s cathedral. As such, Michelangelo
enlarged David’s head to compensate for the ex-
Lucas (b.1962) rose to prominence as part of the
generation of ‘Young British Artists’, whose work
often employed visual puns and witty one-liners
more common to advertising and popular culture
than fine art.
the original moved to the city’s Galleria dell’Ac- Throughout her career, Lucas has repeatedly
cademia in 1873). Aside from its magnificence, returned to the body as subject and in particular,
the Florentines perhaps felt such affection for the its visual representation outside of the realm of
A number of Lucas’ works have used food to
represent the body – fried eggs as breasts, a kebab
or raw chicken as female genitalia. Here, the use
of melons, oranges and a cucumber refer to a
of Art, The Art Book, The Photography Book and 30,000
Years of Art
bawdy, unsophisticated comic humour that has
existed across cultures for generations, but which
is not usually found in the context of a gallery.
The mattress that holds them in place refers to
the most common location for sex, and yet its

gently holding a stone in his hand and a sling
over his shoulder. His idealized, youthful frame
posed in contrapposto pays homage to the sculp-
ture of the ancient Greeks. Yet his calm body be-
lies his tense countenance as he contemplates the
dangerous challenge before him. The sculpture’s
treme foreshortening that would result in viewing
him from the ground. However, the Florentine
public fell so deeply in love with the work at its
unveiling that it was decided to display it promi-
nently in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, the
city’s town hall (it was replaced with a copy and
sculpture because they saw themselves in the un- high art. Au Naturel is an assemblage of found slouched, stained appearance speaks of squalor
derdog David, since the citizens of the republican objects arranged to suggest explicitly male and and grime: revealing a disparity between the
city had in 1494 ousted the ruling Medici family female bodies. The title is an expression used to mundane reality and romantic fantasy.
from power. describe being naked in a positive light – as
nature intended without the constraints of cloth-
ing – yet here bodies are reduces to their most
basic functions, existing only as sexual parts.

22 BEAUTY BEAUTY 23
24 SEX & GENDER SEX & GENDER 25

Perfect gift for the holidays, a classic in the making and

an indispensable reference for any home library

Book specifications Cover image

Binding: Hardback with cloth binding Robert Mapplethorpe

Format: 305 × 238 mm (12 × 9 ⅜ inches) Self Portrait, 1976
Extent: 440 pp © The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
Number of images: 550 col. Courtesy Art + Commerce
Word count: 100,000
ISBN: 978 0 7148 6966 7

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19
 BEAUTY

BODY
THE ABSENT BODY

RELIGION & BELIEF

BODIES & SPACE

OF
SEX & GENDER

EMOTION EMBODIED

POWER

THE BODY’S LIMITS

ART
THE ABJECT BODY

IDENTITY