ART-258 Embodied Representations: Art, the Body, & Identity

GER: VP (Human Cultures - Visual and Performing Arts)
From the idealized, youthful male nude presented in ancient Greek and Roman sculptures to Marina Abramović’s performance pieces that ask viewers to consider the physical and mental limitations of a living being, the human body occupies a key place in our cultural perceptions of beauty, virtue, heroism, and civility. Artists from across the globe have invented and employed different visual strategies to represent the human form, creating an artistic platform for promoting cultural norms and expectations as well as power structures. By exploring the portrayal of the human form in different states of dress and conditions (including fragmentation) in works of art from antiquity to the present, students will consider how the body serves as a potent signifier of complex socio-cultural issues like sexuality, gender, race, class, science, and religion. 4 credits.