Masculinities: Photography and Film from the 1960s to Now: Liberation through Photography

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Bas Jan Ader (1945-1975), Laurie Anderson (1947), Kenneth Anger (1927), Knut Åsdam (1968), Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Aneta Bartos, Richard Billingham (1970), Cassils (1975), Sam Contis (1982), John Coplans (1920-2003), Rineke Dijkstra (1959), George Dureau (1930-2014), Thomas Dworzak (1972), Hans Eijkelboom (1949), Fouad Elkoury (1952), Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989), Hal Fischer (1950), Samuel Fosso (1962), Anna Fox (1961), Masahisa Fukase (1934-2012), Sunil Gupta (1953), Peter Hujar (1934-1987), Liz Johnson Artur (1964), Isaac Julien (1960), Kiluanji Kia Henda (1979), Karen Knorr (1954), Deana Lawson (1979), Hilary Lloyd (1964), Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), Peter Marlow (1952-2016), Ana Mendieta (1948-1985), Annette Messager (1943), Duane Michals (1932), Tracey Moffatt (1960), Andrew Moisey (1979), Richard Mosse (1980), Adi Nes (1966), Catherine Opie (1961), Elle Pérez (1989), Herb Ritts (1952-2002), Kalen Na’il Roach (1992), Collier Schorr (1963), Paul Mpagi Sepuya (1982), Clare Strand (1973), Mikhael Subotzky (1981), Larry Sultan (1946-2009), Hank Willis Thomas (1976), Wolfgang Tillmans (1968), Piotr Uklański (1968), Karlheinz Weinberger (1921-2006), Marianne Wex (1937-2020), David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992), Akram Zaatari (1966). There is not much here about work – unless you count the wall of Hollywood actors playing Nazis. You would never think, from this show, that men ever earned a living, cooked a meal or read a book (though there is a sententious vitrine of Men Only magazines). Beyond the exceptions given, there is scarcely anything about the heart or intellect. Men are represented here almost entirely in terms of their bodies, sexuality or supposed type. In the wake of #MeToo the image of masculinity has come into sharper focus, with ideas of toxic and fragile masculinity permeating today’s society. This exhibition charts the often complex and sometimes contradictory representations of masculinities, and how they have developed and evolved over time. Touching on themes including power, patriarchy, queer identity, female perceptions of men, hypermasculine stereotypes, tenderness and the family, the exhibition shows how central photography and film have been to the way masculinities are imagined and understood in contemporary culture. Watch Yasmeen Lari outside a women’s centre on stilts she designed in Sindh province, Pakistan. Photograph: courtesy Heritage Foundation of Pakistan 3 100 Day Studio, by the Architecture Foundation

Presented across six sections, the exhibition grapples with masculinity in its expansive forms. The first chapter, Disrupting the Archetype, explores the representation of conventional and at times clichéd masculine subjects such as soldiers, cowboys, athletes, bullfighters, body builders and wrestlers. By reconfiguring the representation of traditional masculinity – loosely defined as an idealised, dominant heterosexual masculinity – the artists presented here challenge our ideas of these hypermasculine stereotypes. Vogue-Chi facilitates a collection of vital tools historically developed by LGBTQ+ people to engage positively in life and overcome institutionalized oppression, invisibilization and abuse. Vogue-Chi was created by artists/dancers Carlos Maria Romero aka Atabey Mamasita & Ted Rogers in Margate, UK for people aged over 50. It has evolved organically into a multi-generational queer and allies safe space for self-expression and coming together.Participating artists Bas Jan Ader, Laurie Anderson, Kenneth Anger, Liz Johnson Artur, Knut Åsdam, Richard Avedon, Aneta Bartos, Richard Billingham, Cassils, Sam Contis, John Coplans, Jeremy Deller, Rineke Dijkstra, George Dureau, Thomas Dworzak, Hans Eijkelboom, Fouad Elkoury, Hal Fischer, Samuel Fosso, Anna Fox, Masahisa Fukase, Sunil Gupta, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Peter Hujar, Isaac Julien, Rotimi Fani- Kayode, Karen Knorr, Deana Lawson, Hilary Lloyd, Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Marlow, Ana Mendieta, Annette Messager, Duane Michals, Tracey Moffatt, Andrew Moisey, Richard Mosse, Adi Nes, Catherine Opie, Elle Pérez, Herb Ritts, Kalen Na’il Roach, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Collier Schorr, Clare Strand, Mikhael Subotzky, Larry Sultan, Wolfgang Tillmans, Hank Willis Thomas, Piotr Uklański, Andy Warhol, Karlheinz Weinberger, Marianne Wex, David Wojnarowicz and more. Although photography has often been dominated by men taking pictures of women through a ‘male gaze’, the exhibition’s final and subversive section ‘Women on Men’ seeks to reverse this gaze. The works of Marianne Wex and Tracey Moffatt are displayed in this section alongside Laurie Anderson’s project ‘ Fully Automated Nikon’ and illustrate the use of a re-appropriated ‘female gaze’ to scrutinize objectification and sexism experienced by women. Anderson uses her camera lens to reverse the gaze and render visible assaults which leave women feeling exposed. Her photographs create a role reversal wherein she exposes men, thus rendering them powerless, not dissimilarly to Laura Bates’ pivotal project ‘Everyday Sexism’ aimed at cataloguing instances of everyday sexism. Moffatt’s comic and awkward short film consisting of video snippets of surfers changing out of their wetsuits investigates, not dissimilarly, the subject voyeurism and intrusion. We are currently missing a lot of things. Everything from meeting friends for coffee to half price Mondays at the cinema seems like a distant memory. Living in London, there’s nothing we miss more than the wealth of culture we used to take for granted. We asked curator and archivist Cyana Madsen to talk about one of her favourite recent exhibitions.

Since its invention photography has been a powerful vehicle for the construction and documentation of family narratives. In contrast to the conventions of the traditional family portrait, the artists gathered here deliberately set out to record the ‘messiness’ of life, reflecting on misogyny, violence, sexuality, mortality, intimacy and unfolding family dramas, presenting a more complex and not always comfortable vision of fatherhood and masculinity. Luís Correia is an art historian and film programmer interested in the study of the body, philosophy, and the emancipatory politics of art. With an MA in nineteenth-century French art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art, he’s worked in exhibitions and programmed film events with the Barbican. He’s currently interested in researching the intersections between modern aesthetics, death, and the politics of mourning.In defiance of the prejudice and legal constraints against homosexuality over the last century in Europe, the United States and beyond, the works presented in the forth chapter, Queering Masculinity, highlight how artists from the 1960s onwards have forged a new politically-charged queer aesthetic.

Normativity The process by which some groups of people, forms of expression and types of behaviour are classified according to a perceived standard of what is ‘normal’, ‘natural’, desirable and permissible in society. Inevitably, this process designates people, expressions and behaviours that do not fit these norms as abnormal, unnatural, undesirable and impermissible. Cosima Cobley Carr is a Barbican Young Creatives Alumni and an interdisciplinary artist, working in moving-image, collage and sound. Across different media, Cosi uses a collage method, bringing diverse elements from found and archival sources together with analogue and digitally created elements. Through their practice, Cosi explores issues related to social understanding, language-use and psychotherapy. Through the medium of film and photography, this major exhibition considers how masculinity has been coded, performed, and socially constructedfrom the 1960s to the present day. Examining depictions of masculinity from behind the lens, the exhibition brings together the work of over 50 international artists, photographers and filmmakers includingLaurie Anderson,Sunil Gupta,Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Isaac JulienandCatherine Opie. In the wake of #MeToo, the image of masculinity has come into sharper focus, with ideas of toxic and fragile masculinity permeating today’s society. This exhibition charts the often complex and sometimes contradictory representations of masculinities, and how they have developed and evolved over time. Touching on themes including power, patriarchy, queer identity, racial politics, female perceptions of men, hypermasculinestereotypes, tendernessand the family, the exhibition examines the critical role photography and film have played in the way masculinitiesareimagined and understood in contemporary culture.Examining increasingly fluid notions of masculinity over the past six decades, this book offers a culturally diverse collection of work from some of the world's most celebrated photographers. Daniel Regan is a photographic artist whose work focuses on complex emotional experiences, often using his own lived experience of mental health difficulties as the stimulus. He’s interested in how we use photography as a way to process life’s experiences and can find a deeper understanding of who we are through photographs. This autumn, the Gropius Bau presents Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, a comprehensive group exhibition that explores the diverse ways in which masculinity is experienced, performed and socially constructed through photography and film from the 1960s to the present day. Some of you are probably feeling disconcerted in this time. This is a simple guide to some exercises that you can try at home on your own terms to hopefully bring you a moment to move and connect with yourself in a loving way. They are part of Vogue-Chi, a movement practice created primarily for people 50+ years old but many people have praised its benefits.