Art Metropole

#11911

Sexuality

Artists

Vito Acconci, Louise Bourgeois, Gerard Byrne, Wim Delvoye, Elmgreen & Dragset, VALIE EXPORT, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Mary Kelly, Paul McCarthy, Yoko Ono, Cathy Opie, Carolee Schneemann, David Wojnarowicz, lynda benglis, George Chakravarthi, Judy Chicago, vaginal davis, harmony hammond, claudette johnson, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Legorreta, Sarah Maple, Shirin Neshat, Lorraine O'Grady, Catherine Opie, William L, Pope, Miriam Schapiro , Joan Semmel, Barbara Smith, Annie Sprinkle, Alina Szapocznikow, Del LaGrace Volcano, and Hannah Wilke

Date

2014

Publisher

MIT Press

Format

Artists' Books

Size

5.8 × 8.3 inches

Length

240 pages

Genre

Theory

Description

It has been argued, most notably in psychoanalytic and modernist art discourse, that the production of works of art is fundamentally driven by sexual desire. It has been further argued, particularly since the early 1970s, that sexual drives and desires also condition the distribution, display and reception of art.

This anthology traces how and why this identification of art with sexual expression or repression arose and how the terms have shifted in tandem with artistic and theoretical debates, from the era of the rights movements to the present. Among the subjects it discusses are abjection and the “informe,” or formless; pornography and the obscene; the performativity of gender and sexuality; and the role of sexuality in forging radical art or curatorial practices in response to such issues as state-sponsored repression and anti-feminism in the broader social realm.

Artists surveyed include:
Vito Acconci, Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Gerard Byrne, George Chakravarthi, Judy Chicago, Vaginal Davis, Wim Delvoye, Elmgreen & Dragset, Valie Export, Félix González-Torres, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Harmony Hammond, Claudette Johnson, Mary Kelly, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Legorreta, Paul McCarthy, Sarah Maple, Shirin Neshat, Lorraine O’Grady, Yoko Ono, Catherine Opie, Orlan, William Pope.L, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, Joan Semmel, Barbara Smith, Annie Sprinkle, Alina Szapocznikow, Del LaGrace Volcano, Hannah Wilke, and David Wojnarowicz.

Writers include:
Malek Alloula, Norman O. Brown, Judith Butler, Douglas Crimp, Angela Dimitrakaki, Michel Foucault, Daniel Guérin, Eleanor Heartney, Jonathan D. Katz, Rosalind Krauss, Julia Kristeva, Paweł Leszkowicz, Herbert Marcuse, Kobena Mercer, Laura Mulvey, Lawrence Rinder, Jacqueline Rose, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Susan Sontag, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Stephen Whittle.

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