Since the origins of representation, the human body has been a vehicle for a variety of approaches to artistic expression. As a way of imagining the divine, as a site of beauty and ideal ruminations on mortality, or as a contested terrain between nature and nurture, bodies – and representations of bodies – index culture's ideas about itself and mark the place for the interrogation and contestation of the human form.
Recently, the body has re-emerged as a work in progress, a canvas to be modified, conforming to the ever-changing canons of beauty or to ever-changing constructed gender roles. In this capacity, the the body as a malleable form has returned to being at the center of cultural debate and artistic expression. As lightning rods for contemporary social issues – including violence committed against the marginalized, the recognition of transgender individuals and the replacement of workers with robotics, to name a few examples – organisms have gained unprecedented visibility in the political discourse.
Aware of these problems, this exhibition traces the ways in which the body has been interrogated and transformed in contemporary art from 1894 to the present.
How it evolved from a robust academic art practice to a laboratory for the cutting-edge dialogue between critical theory and creative endeavour, the American Academy in Rome (AAR) is uniquely qualified to host an exhibition that tracks changing representations of the body in art and society. In doing so, the institution reflects critically on its own trajectory and its enduring relevance.
The Academic Corps presents works by artists affiliated with the AAR (Fellows and Residents) whose work has explored the above themes in a provocative way, as well as artists whose trajectories have intersected significantly and critically with Italy and the academic tradition.
Sanford Biggers (2018 Fellow), Patricia Cronin (2007 Fellow), Daniel Chester French, Stephen Greene (1954 Fellow), Ann Hamilton (2017 Resident), Lyle Ashton Harris (2001 Fellow), Tom Johnson/Adrienne Kennedy, Sally Mann, Paul Manship (1912 Fellow), Jessie Marino (2019 Fellow), Beverly McIver (2018 Fellow), Ana Mendieta (1984 Fellow), Wangechi Mutu (2019 Resident), Catherine Opie, Stefan Sagmeister (2019 Resident), David Schutter (2016 Fellow) , SISSI (2007 Italian Fellow), Giuseppe Stampone (2014 Italian Fellow), Catherine Wagner (2014 Fellow), Deborah Willis (2019 Resident).
La The exhibition is curated by Mark Robbins, President and CEO of the American Academy in Rome, and Peter Benson Miller, Andrew Heiskell Arts Director. It is made possible by the Roy Lichtenstein Artist in Residence Fund, the Robert Mapplethorpe Photographer in Residence Fund, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
A fully illustrated catalog accompanying the exhibition includes contributions from Mary Beard (2019 Resident), Leslie Cozzi (2018 Fellow), and Deborah Willis (2019 Resident), as well as Robbins and Miller.
