A Photography Show That Redefines Masculinity in the Age of #MeToo Is a Hit in London—See Images From It Here

“The
male body is under the spotlight,” says Alona Pardo, a curator at
the Barbican Art Gallery in London who has organized a hit show on
masculinity in its many guises and meanings.

The exhibition has struck a nerve in the wake of the #MeToo
movement. The spectacular
downfall of toxic alpha-male film producer Harvey Weinstein, who
today received a 23-year sentence for sex crimes, provides a
backdrop for the show, which features works by 50
artists.

The exhibition is light on
Hollywood heart throbs and other idealized images of the male body,
although there is plenty to get your posts flagged on Instagram—if
photography was permitted in the gallery.

Visitors are immediately
confronted by four large-scale images of a male body past its
prime. The late artist John
Coplan’s large-scale nude self-portraits, which he created while in
his 70s, sets the tone for the group show that challenges
conventional stereotypes. Pardo describes it as an alternative take
on the classical Greek frieze. 

While
homoerotic images by male artists such as Peter Hujar and David Wojnarowiz are among the most tender in
the show, images created by
female artists that subvert male authority and accessories provide
some of the most arresting moments. “It felt natural for women to
be included,” Pardo says: “We are looking at a broad spectrum of
the gender continuum.” There is a section devoted to women
portraying, and subverting, masculinity. 

“Facial hair plays an important role in
‘Masculinities,’” Pardo says. The show includes Catherine Opie’s
series “Being and Having”
(1991). The artist
photographed her close friends in the West Coast’s LGBTQ+ community
sporting false moustaches, tattoos, and other stereotypical
masculine accessories.  

In
1972, Ana Mendieta created
“Untitled (Facial Hair
Transplants),” another
striking series in a show that undermines traditional male gender
stereotypes. Mendieta documented shaving the beard of a fellow male
student and putting it on her own face. Many other feminist artists in the
1970s satirized macho
behavior, among them Marianne Wex, whose series
“Let’s Take Back Our Space”
features women “man spreading,” and men sitting
demurely. 

If
Weinstein’s downfall personifies toxic masculinity brought to book
by women who spoke out, the alpha male US President Donald Trump is
also “lurking in the background,” Pardo says. She included Clare
Strand’s Men Only
Tower (2017), a
sculpture that skewers Trump’s boast that his New York tower has 68
floors. (There are only 58.) Strand has stacked 68 vintage copies
of the magazine Men
Only in a tall
vitrine. Within their
pages the artist has secreted 20 images of resistance against the
patriarchy. 

“It is
wonderful to see there is an appetite for the show,” Pardo says.
Daily attendance is much higher than the gallery expected, and it
is holding up despite concerns about coming into central London due
to coronavirus.

Pardo
says that all of the artists and their estates that she approached
were positive about being included in “Masculinities.” The curator
thought a few might be reluctant to take part but “everyone thought
it was timely,” she says.

Below
are highlights of the exhibition, which is due to travel to the
Luma Foundation during Les Rencontres d’ Arles this summer, and the
Gropius Bau, Berlin, in January 2021.  

“Masculinities: Liberation
Through Photography,” Barbican Art Gallery, February 20
through May
17.

The post A Photography Show That Redefines Masculinity in
the Age of #MeToo Is a Hit in London—See Images From It Here
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