Venezia Arti Journal of the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Journal | Venezia Arti
Monographic journal issue | 28 | 2019
Research Article | The Female Body in the Artistic Research of the Late Twentieth Century

The Female Body in the Artistic Research of the Late Twentieth Century

The Case of Vanessa Beecroft

Abstract

Disguised, adorned, placed in space and obsessively controlled, the body exhibited in Vanessa Beecroft’s performances, drawings and photographs, highlights several key themes of contemporary debate, such as identity transformation, desire, gaze and obsession for perfection, shown from the artist’s perspective and impressed on her models’ bodies. The present essay aims to deepen these topics through the works of Vanessa Beecroft, with an emphasis on those realised in the early nineties – among which the drawings of deformed bodies and the compulsive annotations of the Libro del Cibo – and relating them to the contemporary research of Italian female artists, which reveal new declinations of art making, starting from the same subject: the female body and its symbolism.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: July 18, 2019 | Accepted: Aug. 16, 2019 | Published Dec. 11, 2019 | Language: it

Keywords SymbolismFemalePerformanceBodyVanessa Beecroft


Read this article