Steve Carr A Shot in the Dark (The Bachelor) (detail) 2008. C-type print mounted on dibond. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2008. Image courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland
Steve Carr A Shot in the Dark (The Bachelor) 2008. C-type print mounted on dibond. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2008. Image courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland
Steve Carr A Shot in the Dark (The Bachelor) 2008. C-type print mounted on dibond. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2008. Image courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland
Installation View: The Naked and the Nude 2009
Installation View: The Naked and the Nude 2009
Installation View: The Naked and the Nude 2009
Installation View: The Naked and the Nude 2009
Installation View: The Naked and the Nude 2009
Installation View: The Naked and the Nude 2009
This exhibition is now closed
Spanning more than 150 years of art-making, this exhibition reveals changes in the way bodies look, and the way we look at bodies.
The unclothed human figure is one of art's oldest subjects, yet it still catches attention and ignites debate.
This exhibition brings together dozens of bodies from the collection, from languid academic nudes to the fragmented bodies of recent art.
Along the way, the exhibition charts the growing tension between the nude and the naked – between works of art that idealise the body and those that try to tell it like it is.
Exhibition number 838
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Date:
18 December 2009 – 18 April 2010 -
Curator:
Justin Paton -
Exhibition number:
838
Collection works in this exhibition
Related reading: exhibition-838
audio
The Naked and The Nude
Take a tour of The Naked and the Nude with senior curator Justin Paton.
Notes
Art and Ethics
Recently I read an art history thesis, which covers two instances of moral panic and subsequent legal action taken against galleries for showing photographic art depicting naked children, one in the US in 1984 (Robert Mapplethorpe) and one in Australia in 2008 (Bill Henson).