The exhibition Nudes is an up-dated reading of a traditional artistic genre – the female nude. Despite the official soc-realism, collections of Slovakgalleries and art museums are surprisingly rich in images of naked women – ever attractive and viewer-rewarding motifs of fine artists.
However, female nude – both classical and modernistic one – 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 (also canonical in the meantime) 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 “reading against the grain” – in form of a dialogue or a cartoon – to spotlight even that sexist aspect of the old-mastery.
Collaboration: Jana Juráňová a Jana Cviková
Visual of the exhibition and the catalogue: Eva Filová