A Different Way to Think about Art Education
The exhibition NUDES: Uncensored Works by Modern Masters
Question: Do women have to be naked to get into the SNG? Answer: At this exhibition they definitely do!!!
The exhibition NUDES is dedicated to the feminist group Guerrilla Girls which has been for 25 years publicly protesting against various forms of sexism and racism - mainly in the area of culture and art.
NUDES: Uncensored Works by Modern Masters
WHERE: at the Esterházy Palace, Námestie Ľ. Štúra 4, Bratislava
WHEN: until November 28, 2010
Like the curator of the exhibition Petra Hanáková writes: The exhibition Nudes is an updated reading of a traditional artistic genre - the female nude. Despite of official soc-realism, collections of Slovak galleries and art museums are surprisingly rich in images of naked women - ever attractive and view-rewarding motifs of fine artists. However, female nude - both classical and modernistic ones - is, in principle, quite a problematic genre. Not only for its factitiousness (the image of a naked woman, who - usually with a book in her hand - is laying on a sofa must seem rather comical to most women today), but mainly for its not entirely fair distribution of roles and viewpoints which it implies: a naked woman and a dressed man (an artist or a viewer), a peeper versus the "peeped" one. In our selection, nude as a genre of visual exploitation, as well as an arena of artistic "conquests" will be exposed to feminist reading. Thus, it will be a double-coded display, which on one hand will introduce classical works of canonical artists and, on the other hand, through reading of feminist authors Jana Juráňová and Jana Cviková will unveil their rather obscure dimension.
The exhibition thus presents a dual potential, a binary intention: on one hand, to show old-master values in (predominantly) state collections; on the other hand, via their critical "readings against the grain" - in form of a dialogue or a cartoon - to spotlight even that sexist aspect of the old-mastery.
