Erotic ambiguities : the female nude in art / Helen McDonald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McDonald, Helen, 1949- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Female nude in art.

Feminism in art.

Gender identity in art.

Women artists--Psychology.

Women artists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Art is always ambiguous. When it involves the female body it can also be erotic. Erotic Ambiguities is a study of how contemporary women artists have reconceptualised the figure of the female nude. Helen McDonald shows how, over the past thirty years, artists have employed the idea of ambiguity to dismantle the exclusive, classical ideal enshrined in the figure of the nude, and how they have broadened the scope of the ideal to include differences of race, ethnicity, sexuality and disability as well as gender. McDonald discusses the work of a wide range of women artists, including Barbara Kruger, Judy Chicago, Mary Duffy, Zoe Leonard, Tracey Moffatt, Pat Brassington and Sally Smart. She traces the shift in feminist art practices from the early challenge to patriarchal representations of the female nude to contemporary, 'postfeminist' practices, influenced by theories of performativity, queer theory and postcolonialism. McDonald argues that feminist efforts to develop a more positive representation of the female body need to be reconsidered, in the face of the resistant ambiguities and hybrid complexities of visual art in the late 1990s.

Contents:

Cover; EROTIC AMBIGUITIES: The female nude in art; Copyright; CONTENTS; PLATES; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INTRODUCTION; 1 FEMINISM, AMBIGUITY AND THE IDEAL; 2 RE-VISIONING THE FEMALE NUDE; 3 HISTORICAL AMBIGUITY; 4 SEEING AMBIGUITY; 5 GENDER AMBIGUITY; 6 MAKING A DIFFERENCE WITH AMBIGUITY; 7 TURNING AMBIGUITY AROUND; 8 HYBRID AMBIGUITIES; CONCLUSION; NOTES; REFERENCES; INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-134-69667-1

1-134-69668-X

1-280-31875-9

0-203-44870-7

9780203448700

OCLC:

51161504