LAUNCHED by novelist Christos Tsiolkas this morning very quietly, possibly because of the sensitive subject-matter, the National Portrait Gallery’s new show, “Tough and Tender”, presents ‘raw and intimate’ photography from American and Australian artists from the 1960s to now.
Featuring work by international artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Chris Burden, and Collier Schorr, this exhibition explores “youth, the coming of age, intimacy and emotional vulnerability” alongside contemporary Australian artists Rozalind Drummond and Warwick Baker, who have made portraits specifically for the NPG show
Providing intimate depictions of people, places and life-events in semi-private worlds, the exhibition also looks at people who live on the margins of society.
The exhibition curator and senior curator at the NPG Dr Christopher Chapman says, “In Larry Clark’s photos, boy hustlers act tough but we know they really crave protection and love. In Collier Schorr’s photos young German soldiers surrender to her camera. Robert Mapplethorpe’s photos thrill to the sensation of smooth skin. When you reveal your deepest feelings, there’s always the risk of a broken heart.”
Chapman has maintained a long-term scholarly investigation of masculinity in visual and wrote on the topic in his doctoral thesis, which examined adolescent masculinity and themes of self-sacrifice in contemporary photography and film.
These landmark photographs, some of which have never been displayed in Australia before, explore the complexities of masculinity and gender within an intimate and raw framework composed with sensitivity and candour.
“Tough and Tender,” National Portrait Gallery, open to the public from Friday, July 15 to Sunday October 16.
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