The Body and its Boundaries
- Location: The Ned, 27 Poultry, London EC2R 8AJ
- Date: 19.06.18 | 7:00pm
- Book Now: Please note that this is a members only event unless a guest of Nick Nelson at Arcadia Education
In this interactive talk, we will appraise depictions of the Human Form in Art from Antiquity to Modernity. In particular, we will focus on the modern artists Freud, Saville, Bacon and Gormley, inspired in part by the current exhibition ‘All Too Human’ at the Tate Britain. Come and join the debate!
The ancient Greeks captured perfectly the ‘body beautiful’ in emulating the idealised athletes and deities of antiquity. Since such time, the nude has continued to be a major concern despite, or maybe because of, its entrenched position in the Western canon. Post-World War Two in particular, four British heavyweights of the figurative tradition sought to reappraise the human form. Starting with The School of London, new approaches to the representation of the body were pioneered by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Both artists explored existentialism, voyeurism and the vagaries of the human condition. Furthermore, in the early twenty-first century, Antony Gormley & Jenny Saville have embraced Damien Hirst’s post-Modernist doctrine that ‘Art is about life, and it can’t really be anything else. There isn’t anything else’ in exploring gender, identity, feminism and body boundaries. With the media obsession with airbrushed bodies have we completed the circle that began in antiquity? Come and join the debate.
This talk coincides with the excellent ‘All Too Human: Bacon & Freud’ exhibition at the Tate Britain, 28 Feb – 27 Aug 2018.
Contact Robina Lamche-Brennan: robina.brennan@thened.com for booking this event