Erotic Ambiguities

The Female Nude in Art

Helen McDonald

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English

Routledge
11 December 2000

Nudes depicted in art; Humanities; Cultural studies; Feminism & feminist theory; Gender studies, gender groups; Sociology

Art is always ambiguous. When it involves the female body it can also be erotic. Erotic Ambiguities is a study of how contemporary women artists have reconceptualised the figure of the female nude. Helen McDonald shows how, over the past thirty years, artists have employed the idea of ambiguity to dismantle the exclusive, classical ideal enshrined in the figure of the nude, and how they have broadened the scope of the ideal to include differences of race, ethnicity, sexuality and disability as well as gender. McDonald discusses the work of a wide range of women artists, including Barbara Kruger, Judy Chicago, Mary Duffy, Zoe Leonard, Tracey Moffatt, Pat Brassington and Sally Smart. She traces the shift in feminist art practices from the early challenge to partriarchal representations of the female nude to contemporary, 'postfeminist' practices, influenced by theories of performativity, queer theory and postcoloniality. McDonald argues that feminist efforts to develop a more positive representation of the female body need to be reconsidered, in the face of the resistant ambiguities and hybrid complexities of visual art in the late 1990s.

By: Helen McDonald
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9780415170994
ISBN 10: 0415170990
Pages: 262
Publication Date: 11 December 2000
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Plates Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Feminism, Ambiguity and the Ideal 2. Revisioning the Female Nude 3. Historical Ambiguity 4. Seeing Ambiguity 5. Gender Ambiguity 6. Making a Difference with Ambiguity 7. Turning Ambiguity Around 8. Hybrid Ambiguities Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index

Helen McDonald is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology at the University of Melbourne.

Reviews for Erotic Ambiguities: The Female Nude in Art

... a dense, theory-filled volume which discusses work by--among others--comtemporary queer artists Zoe Leonard and Tracy Moffatt. Queer Caucus for Art Newsletter October 2001. <br>