xy
June 27 – October 4, 2009
This exhibition is offered by the Spencer Museum of Art for the educational and artistic purposes described below in the exhibition description. The exhibition contains adult themes and viewer discretion is advised.
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Exhibition Description
Male sexuality is determined by the x and y chromosomes, yet what does it mean to be a man?
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Exhibition Categories
To explore the many and complex meanings of manhood, the exhibition is divided into six sections: “Forever Young,” “Naked,” “The Clothes Make the Man,” “Work Hard; Play Harder,” “Degrees of Desire,” and “Man Enough.”
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Write Your Own Label
We invite you to submit responses to any or all of these works included in xy. The best of these submissions will be selected by the curator, produced as labels, and installed as part of the exhibition.
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xy in the News
Media coverage of the exhibition.
Male sexuality is determined by the x and y chromosomes, yet what does it mean to be a man? For sociologist R.W. Connell, author of the highly influential gender studies classic Masculinities (1995) male behavior is informed by what she characterized as "hegemonic masculinity." This is a culturally accepted or normative ideal of male behavior that is calculated to guarantee the dominant position of some men over others and the subordination of women. For a counterpoint take comedian Denis Leary who unpacks the word "macho" below:
Macho is a very slippery thing. You don't read about it, you don't write about it, you don't even know the correct spelling of the word. In a vain attempt to keep some semblance of masculinity, I didn't research the roots of the word while writing this article, but I can only assume that "macho" comes from "machismo," which sounds a hell of a lot like a machine. Being macho implies a tough, hard, block-like approach full of pistons and rods and axles and other big steel-type stuff.from "Are You Man Enough?"
Leary admits that in our contemporary world, these steely, unfeeling paragons of masculinity are quickly disappearing. Yet, whatever your perspective, masculinity remains a complex construct, one which is explored across a range of historical, cultural and temporal trajectories in this exhibition. Rather than attempting to come to a single conclusion, the exhibition strives to excavate hidden meanings, unravel assumptions and hopefully provide some new insights into masculinity.
The first part of the exhibition explores the immediacy of certain markers or visual cues of maleness, namely age, body, and clothes. Innocence, playfulness, and beauty characterize depiction of boyhood and youth in "Forever Young." In "Naked," the male body is undressed, but far from denuded of meaning. Rather the body becomes a site for the construction or, vice versa, the dismantling of ideas pertaining to male physicality. Redressed in "The Clothes Make the Man," this section questions the role of fashion—a word traditionally associated with women—in the construction of masculinity and gender identity.
The second section brings the male body into dialogue with an internalized realm of emotion, feeling, and self consciousness. "Work Hard; Play Harder" blurs distinctions between fun, casual play, and more serious endeavors like labor and war to look at how work and play inform the construction of masculine self-consciousness. The next grouping, "Degrees of Desire," provides a spectrum of sexual yearning: intimacy, desire, eroticism, or just plain horny. The final section of the exhibition, "Man Enough," is a nuanced open-ended pairing of the "muscular" tough side of being a man and the tender, unspoken realm of emotions.
Throughout the exhibition, the male body serves as a site of social agency through which norms of social conduct, and rebellion against normativity, are constructed, performed, and contested. By pondering the socio-cultural dimensions of male identity, whether through representations of male space, the body, or idealized archetypes, the exhibition questions the modes and methods of male behavior as realized and represented visually by artists.
Do you have a thought about one of the works in the xy exhibition? Would you like to see your ideas on the walls of the Spencer Museum? We invite you to share your insights about any or all of the ten works of art selected below and currently on view in the exhibition xy. We are especially interested in reading labels from people with a variety of interests, insights, and backgrounds. We encourage you to discard any preconceptions about what an art label should say—be creative and share something that you feel will help other people understand these works from your point of view. We will select some of the most interesting submissions and install them by the works in the exhibition. If yours is selected, we’ll let you know when it will be on view.
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Two Miners, Datong, Shanxi Province
Liu Zheng -
Der Blutende (Bleeding Man)
Max Oppenheimer -
untitled (woman shaving)
Carl Fischer -
Transvestite and Paddy Wagon, New York
Weegee -
untitled
Howard Forsberg -
untitled
Ernest Chiriaka -
Men by the River
Dennis K. Helm -
Red Jackson, Harlem Gang Leader
Gordon Parks -
Jack Dracula, the Marked Man
Diane Nemerov Arbus -
Lawrence High School Homecoming, Lawrence, KS
Earl Iversen
