“Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820′009” at the National Academy is an exhibition that examines the critical role the human figure has played in America’s art for the past 189 years. Transcending chronological, stylistic and generational boundaries, the exhibition presents 160 works drawn from the National Academy’s collection of American art, as well as a selection of works by contemporary artists who are carrying on the figurative tradition in new and adventurous ways. The exhibition is on view to November 15.
The show is divided chronologically into three main parts, each with numerous thematic galleries. The years 1820‱950 presents “In the Act,” featuring artists’ portraits, figure studies and sketch books. Thomas Eakins (1844‱916) is represented by his perplexing and only finished “Self Portrait” of 1902, the subject of considerable art historical debate. Robert F. Blum’s (1857‱903) “Japanese Beggar” is displayed alongside his larger rendering of the mendicant trapper priest who served as his model, as well as Clarence H. Carter’s (1904′000) unsettling “Self Portrait” of 1950 when the artist was interested in exploring aspects of the metaphysical, the intangible and the unknown.
Also included in this section is “The Figure Undressed,” presenting a selection of drawings, paintings and sculpture of the male and female nude by, among others, Isabel Bishop, Kenyon Cox, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth and Elihu Vedder.
“In the Round” is devoted to sculpture and explores ethnic and racial identity, labor, sport and classical allegory and myth and features Cecil de Blaquiere Howard, Evelyn Beatrice Longman, Berthold Nebel and John Quincy Adams Ward.
The final grouping, “From A to Z: The Figure from the Federalist Period to the Dawn of the Cold War,” contains more than 40 great masterworks of American art, including Frederick Stiles Agate, John White Alexander, Eastman Johnson, Henry Siddons Mowbray and William MacGregor Paxton.
The post-1950 section emphasizes the importance of the figure in work by established American artists over the last 60 years. Thematically, “Dis-embodiment” shows how artists such as Larry Rivers, Judith Shea and Lesley Dill have broken down and reconstructed the figure in varying ways. “Self Reflection” reveals how self-portraiture continues to be a creative avenue for artists such as Jane Freilicher and Benny Andrews. “About Face” focuses on how artists have dealt with the figure’s locus: the face. “Bodies in Motion, Bodies at Rest” juxtaposes sitters at rest with those in movement and includes works by Philip Pearlstein and Susan Rothenberg.
“Next: The Figure Now” explores how the figure has reemerged over the last ten years as an important subject for a new generation of American artists. Kehinde Wiley’s neobaroque patterned portraits of urban black men, Jenny Dubnau’s hyperrealistic portraits and Will Ryman’s sculptures of oversized personages reveal the shift of perceptions and interpretations of the figure in contemporary American art, as do the recent works of emerging artists Ion Birch, Natalie Frank, Debra Hampton, Ridley Howard, Alyssa Monks and Shannon Plumb.
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