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The Eighth Square: Gender, Life and Desire in Art Since 1960 / Das achte Feld: Geschlechter, Leben und Begehren in der Kunst seit 1960
In chess, when a pawn reaches the eighth square on the far side of the board, the player can swap it for a piece from his opponent's set. So the pawn—a lowly foot soldier—can transform into a queen, the least powerful figure can transform into the epitome of power, and a man can become a woman—just like that. Issues of sexuality are playing out around us all the time, quaking and transmuting under the surface of every family exchange and embedded in all of our popular media images. This scholarly and yet still erotic compendium examines, through works by more than 70 artists, historical and social developments in human sexuality, taking on all facets of drag, gender, queerness and transsexuality. Artists include Diane Arbus, Francis Bacon, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tracey Moffatt, Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg and Cindy Sherman.
- GenresArt
304 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2006
32 people want to read
About the author
Judith Butler
223 books3,690 followersJudith Butler is an American post-structuralist and feminist philosopher who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy and ethics. They are currently a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.
Butler received their Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1984, for a dissertation subsequently published as Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France. In the late-1980s they held several teaching and research appointments, and were involved in "post-structuralist" efforts within Western feminist theory to question the "presuppositional terms" of feminism.
Their research ranges from literary theory, modern philosophical fiction, feminist and sexuality studies, to 19th- and 20th-century European literature and philosophy, Kafka and loss, and mourning and war. Their most recent work focuses on Jewish philosophy and exploring pre- and post-Zionist criticisms of state violence.
Butler received their Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1984, for a dissertation subsequently published as Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France. In the late-1980s they held several teaching and research appointments, and were involved in "post-structuralist" efforts within Western feminist theory to question the "presuppositional terms" of feminism.
Their research ranges from literary theory, modern philosophical fiction, feminist and sexuality studies, to 19th- and 20th-century European literature and philosophy, Kafka and loss, and mourning and war. Their most recent work focuses on Jewish philosophy and exploring pre- and post-Zionist criticisms of state violence.
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November 4, 2011
A Remarkable, Historically Significant Exhibition Catalogue
THE EIGHTH SQUARE: GENDER, LIFE AND DESIRE IN THE ARTS SINCE 1960 was an exhibition staged in the Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany in 2006. It was one of the more daring exhibitions of its time (and remains so to this date) in that it ventured into the furthest fringes of sexuality. The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue represented the first time that artists' approaches to marginalized sexuality had received such a comprehensive showing. The exhibition includeed over 260 works from more than 80 artists, giving a broad overview of transsexuality, homosexuality and intersexuality, transgender, gender-crossing, drag and cross-dressing in art.
From the catalogue, as well written as it is visual, the following is stated: 'the title "The Eighth Square" comes from a rule in chess. If a pawn makes it to the eighth square, it will transform into a queen. A gender change that turns everything on its head: the weak become strong, and losers become winners.' The exhibition illustrated this transformation, which countermands the dominant heterosexual gender roles, and call for the possibility of a free, deregulated sexuality. "The Eighth Square" traces out the desire to transmute into another sex and toy with gender ascriptions. And this highlights the fact that sexuality - especially when outside the norm - is a matter of trembling and transmuting, of passion and power, seduction and sadness, misery and magnificence. But the exhibition also recalls the social and political struggles through which sexual self-determination had to and still must be wrested - and often precisely by artists. For art alone allows the subject to be experienced in all its fascination. Not only does it permit a riskfree game with gender and forbidden desires, but it alone can encompass all the contradictions. What does this mean for divergent desires? What does it mean after liberalisation, in a world standardized to death? How does this world look to feminine men and to masculine women?'
The artists exhibited both in the show and in the catalogue are some rarely seen images form such artists as Diane Arbus, Kenneth Anger, David Armstrong, Francis Bacon, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Monica Bonavicini, Nicole Eisenman, Robert Gober, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Ferdinand Kriwet, Zoe Leonard, Robert Mapplethorpe, Michaela Melián, Annette Messager, Piotr Nathan, Catherine Opie, Dayanita Singh, Paul Thek, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Wolfgang Tillmans, David Wojnarowicz among others less well known. Kaspar Konig's Foreword traces the history of the works and their significance in the changing society of the 1960s and onward. For us this book represents a moment in history that permanently changed the way we respond to human sexuality and society's changing response to this subject. This is a major book about a major exhibition and should fine a place in all art schools as well as human behavior studies.
Grady Harp
THE EIGHTH SQUARE: GENDER, LIFE AND DESIRE IN THE ARTS SINCE 1960 was an exhibition staged in the Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany in 2006. It was one of the more daring exhibitions of its time (and remains so to this date) in that it ventured into the furthest fringes of sexuality. The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue represented the first time that artists' approaches to marginalized sexuality had received such a comprehensive showing. The exhibition includeed over 260 works from more than 80 artists, giving a broad overview of transsexuality, homosexuality and intersexuality, transgender, gender-crossing, drag and cross-dressing in art.
From the catalogue, as well written as it is visual, the following is stated: 'the title "The Eighth Square" comes from a rule in chess. If a pawn makes it to the eighth square, it will transform into a queen. A gender change that turns everything on its head: the weak become strong, and losers become winners.' The exhibition illustrated this transformation, which countermands the dominant heterosexual gender roles, and call for the possibility of a free, deregulated sexuality. "The Eighth Square" traces out the desire to transmute into another sex and toy with gender ascriptions. And this highlights the fact that sexuality - especially when outside the norm - is a matter of trembling and transmuting, of passion and power, seduction and sadness, misery and magnificence. But the exhibition also recalls the social and political struggles through which sexual self-determination had to and still must be wrested - and often precisely by artists. For art alone allows the subject to be experienced in all its fascination. Not only does it permit a riskfree game with gender and forbidden desires, but it alone can encompass all the contradictions. What does this mean for divergent desires? What does it mean after liberalisation, in a world standardized to death? How does this world look to feminine men and to masculine women?'
The artists exhibited both in the show and in the catalogue are some rarely seen images form such artists as Diane Arbus, Kenneth Anger, David Armstrong, Francis Bacon, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Monica Bonavicini, Nicole Eisenman, Robert Gober, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Ferdinand Kriwet, Zoe Leonard, Robert Mapplethorpe, Michaela Melián, Annette Messager, Piotr Nathan, Catherine Opie, Dayanita Singh, Paul Thek, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Wolfgang Tillmans, David Wojnarowicz among others less well known. Kaspar Konig's Foreword traces the history of the works and their significance in the changing society of the 1960s and onward. For us this book represents a moment in history that permanently changed the way we respond to human sexuality and society's changing response to this subject. This is a major book about a major exhibition and should fine a place in all art schools as well as human behavior studies.
Grady Harp
Displaying 1 of 1 review