Stripped Bare . The Body Revealed

Photographs from the Collection Thomas Koerfer
Sep 28, 2007 – Dec 9, 2007
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk
© Marc Volk

The naked body is one of the oldest and most fascinating subjects in art. While artists of past centuries felt bound by artistic conventions for the representation of ideal beauty when portraying the unclothed body, the traditional academic poses have broken down increasingly over the course of the 20th century. This process has been especially rapid in photography. The classic nudes of the past have today become naked bodies.

In contemporary art, the realistic, true-to-life body has increasingly become a projection screen for artistic ideas: with all its needs and desires, the body is presented in open, unmediated, and sometimes drastic terms, becoming a symbol for humanity itself.