Uncovered: The Body in Art
Uncovered: The Body in Art
Released: Spring 2023
6 part series
Across human history the body and art have always been irrevocably entwined. In this six-part series, Rose Balston will analyse the body – drawing examples from ancient art through to contemporary, to explore how the body in art has helped shaped our understanding of the world.
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Protective, sacred, sinister, destructive. This is the story of eyes across 5,000 years of art history. Join Rose Balston as she looks at art from the ancient world through to Surrealism, investigating how our eyes have been central to beliefs and traditions across time and age.
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Our nude body is surely the most controversial element of ourselves…across the ages, it has relentlessly caused social and political conversations – and complications. In the ancient Greek world we will explore the evolution of the nude as a political tool. As Rose moves from antiquity, she will travel towards the imagery of the “shameful” medieval body, through to the heroism of Michelangelo’s Renaissance nudes, and the feminist flesh of 20th century Jenny Saville.
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Wounds in art provoke a visceral reaction in the viewer. In this talk Rose will start by exploring powerful images of Christ and the martyrs broken by terrible gashes and scars. As their sacred pain became real, 20th century feminist Frida Kahlo understood how visions of martyrdom could allow her to express the unimaginable pain her own broken body endured.
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Since our first moments of creativity, we have used hands to express our presence on this earth. Over time the hands in art have evolved in power and symbolism, becoming a deeply entrenched, multi-faceted part of the story of western art history. Rose Balston will explore the potency of hands through the art of our oldest ancestors through to Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Henry Moore.
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The foot has extraordinary physical, spiritual and emotional power in the story of western art. To explore its profoundly symbolic role, Rose Balston chooses the art of three artists from across the centuries that span the globe: Caravaggio in Baroque Rome, Kazuo Shiraga in post-war Japan, and Richard Long, a contemporary British artist.
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Protective, sacred, sinister, destructive. This is the story of eyes across 5,000 years of art history. Join Rose Balston as she looks at art from the ancient world through to Surrealism, investigating how our eyes have been central to beliefs and traditions across time and age.