THE NAKED MAN – LUDWIG MUSEUM – BUDAPEST

The Naked Man
March 22, 2013. – June 30, 2013.
Exhibition of the LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, in cooperation with the Ludwig Museum, Budapest
www.ludwigmuseum.hu

While the naked female body, the female nude is an accepted topic of art, the naked male body, after Classical Antiquity, remained close to invisible for a long time, the nude man appeared solely as a mythological hero or a Christian martyr for centuries. What might be the reason for this invisibility, and why is the hidden male body still revealed at times? Through depicitions of the nude male body, we can trace changes in the social role of men, the shaping of male identity, which all is inseparable from changes taking place in society, and the power system. The exhibition follows how the meaning of the male nude has altered in the past hundred years, how male artists approach their own nudity – bravely, though full of doubts, with curiosity about new life patterns; and also how female artists have conquered a theme that had long been forbidden to them.

The exhibition starts around 1900, in the world of the turn of the century Vienna, when the first big crisis of male identity changed the way we look at the male nude. For modern artists, the naked male body divested of every role became bearer of self-revelation, self-recognition and renewal. From this point on, the exhibition follows the male nude through the history of the 20th and 21st centuries, through crises of identity and phases of sovereignity, the questioning of traditional male role models, the search for alternatives, the face up to weakness and vulnerability, the gaze of desire and the erotic pose.

The scope of artistic positions ranges from Egon Schiele to Matthew Barney, Lovis Corinth to Artur Żmijewski, Erich Heckel to Robert Mapplethorpe, Oskar Kokoschka to Keith Haring, Günter Brus to Tibor Hajas, Louise Bourgeois to Katarzyna Kozyra, Eduard Munch and Károly Ferenczy to David Hockney and Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon to Marlene Dumas, Valie Export to Tomislav Gotovac, Gilbert & George to Pierre et Gilles – to name only a few.

Apart from a considerable part of the museum’s collection, the LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, celebrating its tenth anniversary displayed more than 300 artworks in the show (26 October 2012 – 17 February 2013), loaned from the USA, as well as different parts of Europe

The Ludwig Museum, Budapest, displays a version of the exhibition between 22 March 2013 and 30 June 2013, with an emphasis on the Central and Eastern European presence of the topic.

Curators of the exhibition: Sabine Fellner, Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller and Stella Rollig
Co-curators of the Budapest exhibition: Kati Simon and Hedvig Turai.

Artists in the exhibition:
Maayan Amir, Dieter Appelt, Christian Ludwig Attersee, Richard Avedon, Matthew Barney, Herbert Bayer, Irene Bayer, Berhidi Mária, Blue Noses Group, Saskia de Boer, Hermann Boll, Louise Bourgeois, Marianne Brandt, A. Calavas, Jimmy Caruso, Jean Cocteau, Edmund Collein, John Coplans, Marlene Dumas, Thomas Eakins, Frank Eugene, Atelier Fayer, Werner David Feist, Ferenczy Károly, Regina José Galindo, Gilbert & George, Felix González-Torres, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Tomislav Gotovac, Ion Grigorescu, Gyenis Tibor, Ilse Haider, Hajas Tibor, Halász Károly, Keith Haring, Erich Heckel, Matthias Herrmann, David Hockney, Anna Jermolaewa, Franz Kapfer, Keserue Zsolt, Jürgen Klauke, Max Koch, Oscar Kokoschka, Anton Kolig, Käthe Kollwitz, Koncz András, Rudolf Koppitz, Korb Erzsébet, Katarzyna Kozyra, Paul Kranzler, Elke Silvia Krystufek, Alfred Kubin, Hermann Werner Kubusch, Zofia Kulik, David LaChapelle, Lakner László, Peter Land, Annie Leibovitz, Zbigniew Libera, Herbert List, Heinz Loew, Urs Lüthi, Major János, Robert Mapplethorpe, Paul McCarthy, McDermott & McGough, Stefan Moses, Jan Mutsu, Eadweard Muybridge, Otto Mühl, Bruce Nauman, Atelier Alois Navràtil, Adi Nes, Michael Neumüller, Oswald Oberhuber, Pablo Picasso, Pierre et Gilles, Guglielmo Plüschow, Bernhard Prinz, Arnulf Rainer, Leni Riefenstahl, Otto Rieth, Charlotte Rohrbach, Willy Römer, Egon Schiele, Joost Schmidt, Karl Schneider, Sascha Schneider, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Ruti Sela, Fritz Simak, Sylvia Sleigh, Stelarc, Karl Sterrer, Baron Raimund von Stillfried, Szabó Benke Róbert, Szőnyi István, Tihanyi Lajos, Spencer Tunick, Uitz Béla, VALIE EXPORT, Vaszary János, Milisav Mio Vesović, Vető János, Bogdan Vladuta, Rudolf Wacker, Marianne von Werefkin, Edward Weston, Zelko Wiener, Artur Żmijewski.

Special Partner: MasterCard
The exhibition has been kindly supported by: Osztrák Kulturális Fórum, Lengyel Intézet
Partners: Kempinski, Népszabadság, Pesti Est

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