"Eleanor Antin: Time’s Arrow" at LACMA, reviewed in X-TRA

"Nude Nuder Nudist" by Kaucylia Brooke, Spring 2020

 

Eleanor Antin: Time's Arrow at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) reviewed in X-TRA alongside The Renaissance Nude at the Getty Center.

 

Multidisciplinary artist and faculty member at California Institute of the Arts, Kaucylia Brooke, reviewed both exhibitions alongside one another as they both explore the nude human body and the range of reactions caused by this subject matter. 

On view in Time’s Arrow at LACMA was Antin’s 1972 project "CARVING: A Traditional Sculpture" along with an update of the project, "CARVING: 45 Years Later" (2017) and "!!!," also from 2017. Using performance and photography, Antin critiques the idealization and historical representation of the female body.  She shows her body being "carved" by weight loss, like the Renaissance sculptor's approach to sculpting by removing thin layers bit by bit, until new forms are revealed.

 

"Exhibitions like The Renaissance Nude and Eleanor Antin: Time’s Arrow demonstrate the potential of naked bodies to disturb and unsettle viewers, even today. They also affirm how artworks may provide powerful forms of mediation between spirituality, desire, and sexuality."

Eleanor Antin: Time's Arrow was on view at LACMA from May 12–July 28, 2019.

Click here to read the full review.