Laurie says:
In January, I was very excited to hear from Akiko Kasuya who curated my solo exhibition at the National Museum of Art in Osaka in 2001. She told me that I had three photographs (nudes from Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes and Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes) on exhibit there now. The exhibition “Collection” (January 7 to April 8, 2012) introduces a group of works from their collection, centering on recent acquisitions. The exhibition is curated by Yuka Uematsu. Akiko Kasuya and Yuka Uematsu were very helpful and supportive about including appropriate text with the images, which is how I prefer to have my work exhibited.
These are the photos and texts from the exhibition.
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To look in the mirror and see yourself, all of yourself, and to be pleased and satisfied. Should it be an impossible dream? Or is it something we all, each and every one of us, deserve?
– Debbie Notkin
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There is an extraordinary power in the naked male form. But it is a queer kind of power for it stands in opposition to the naked revelation of the real nude body. Indeed, the power and presence of a man’s body appears to depend on its concealment; witness the elaborate protocols that generally govern the disclosure of a male nude—where it can be shown, to whom, what body parts can be visible, etc. Female nudity can be ubiquitous, but to present the male body threatens to give lie to the rich meanings we associate with it. All of which may explain why it’s so rare to see naked or near-naked men in art, advertising, popular media, or that host of other venues in which the female body is now coin of the realm.
– Jonathan D. Katz